DALLAS — A civil lawsuit has been filed by one of the victims in the shooting at the State Fair of Texas last year against the suspected shooter and two of the companies tasked with helping provide security at the fair.
The suit accuses Andy Frain Services of failing to prevent the suspected shooter, Cameron Turner, from entering the fair with the semi-automatic pistol he would allegedly use to shoot three people. GXC made the screening instruments used at the fair at the time, but those instruments, the suit alleges, failed to detect and alert Frain personnel of the weapon Turner was carrying.
"Regardless of whether the finder of fact herein determines that Defendant Frain failed to stop Defendant Shooter when they knew, or should have known, he was carrying a weapon, or whether Defendant GXC's instruments failed to detect the weapon or alert personnel when it should have; one failure by Defendant Frain is certain: Defendant Frain had zero surveillance at the point of entry," the suit argues.
Instead, the suit continues, and the video shows Turner approaching the canopy-covered point of entry screening, and stepping out of view of all surveillance as he steps under the canopy.
"Did grossly negligent security personnel waive-through Defendant Shooter after the GXC instruments alerted them? There is no video," the suit states. "Did an acquaintance of Defendant Shooter waive him through? There is no video. Were hard-working & well-trained Defendant Frain employees properly monitoring GXC instruments that missed the weapon? There is no video."
The State Fair of Texas, the suit argues, had zero video surveillance to monitor personnel for corruption, exhaustion or inattentiveness, or to confirm that the failure was equipment-related and not personnel-related.
One of the victims who filed the suit, Andrea Araujo, still has the bullets inside of her that were reportedly fired by Turner, the suit states, as surgeons are unable to safely remove them.
"What did Plaintiff Araujo do to deserve fear of losing her life and a lifetime of pain, and a permanently impaired body? Her job," the suit states. "She was keeping the State Fair clean for the rest of us. When the bullets hit her in the back, she fell to the floor, dropped her broom, and prayed that she wouldn’t die before getting to say goodbye to her husband."
The suit accuses Andy Frain Services and GXC of negligence and failure to create and enforce policies and procedures and accuses Turner of assault. It seeks damages for Araujo for the mental anguish, physical pain, medical expenses, lost earnings, emotional distress, and physical impairment she has suffered and will continue to suffer.