Midland, Texas Mass Shooting — What Families Need to Know About Legal Rights After a Shooting Death
If you are reading this because someone you love was killed or injured in a mass shooting in Midland, Texas — we want you to hear this first: what happened to your family is not something you “move on” from. It is something you survive, and the law gives you tools to hold people accountable who could have prevented it. The fact that you are searching for legal information right now, in the middle of grief, tells us you are already doing the hardest part — protecting your family’s future while everything feels like it is falling apart.
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. We handle wrongful death and catastrophic-injury cases across Texas, including cases that involve mass-shooting wrongful death claims and negligent security / premises liability claims against property owners who failed to protect the people on their land. This page is written for you — the person at the kitchen table at 2 a.m. with a phone full of unanswered messages and a future that just changed shape. Everything below is legal information, not legal advice. Everything below is free to read. And if any of it connects to what your family is going through, the call is free too: 1-888-ATTY-911.
The One Question That Decides Everything in a Mass Shooting Case: Where Did It Happen?
The first and most important thing we need to determine is the exact location where the shooting occurred. Not the city — the specific property, the intersection, the parking lot, the roadway, the building approach. That single fact decides whether a civil case for your family’s loss has a viable defendant with the resources to pay for what was taken, or whether the case is limited to the criminal perpetrator’s assets (which are almost always negligible) and the Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund.
Here is why. Texas premises liability law holds property owners and operators responsible for the foreseeable criminal acts of third parties when they fail to take reasonable security measures. But that duty only exists if the shooting happened on property where someone owed a duty of care — a commercial business, an apartment complex, a parking facility, a workplace approach, government property. If the shooting happened on a public roadway with no commercial or governmental nexus, the property-liability door narrows significantly.
This is not a reason to lose hope. It is the reason to move quickly. The location question drives everything that follows: who can be held accountable, what insurance may be available, what evidence needs to be preserved, and what the case is worth. We cannot answer it from the memorial coverage alone — but we can help you answer it, and the answer may be different from what you expect.
The Permian Basin is no stranger to mass-casualty shooting events. The Midland-Odessa metropolitan area experienced a devastating highway shooting spree that killed seven and injured twenty-five, generating extensive civil litigation and testing the boundaries of liability for third-party criminal violence in West Texas. That history matters — not because it predicts what happened here, but because it means the legal framework for pursuing these claims in Midland County is already developed and tested. The courts here have wrestled with these questions before.
Texas Wrongful Death Law — Who Can File, What Can Be Recovered, and How Long You Have
Texas wrongful death actions are governed by the Texas Wrongful Death Act, which permits surviving spouses, children, and parents to recover damages for a death caused by another’s wrongful act, neglect, carelessness, unskillfulness, or default. An intentional shooting is a wrongful act — and it is the proximate cause of death for purposes of this statute.
Who May Bring the Claim
Under Texas law, the surviving spouse, children, and parents of the deceased person may bring a wrongful death claim. If none of these beneficiaries bring the claim within three months of the death, the executor or administrator of the estate may file the claim on behalf of the beneficiaries — unless the beneficiaries direct the executor not to file. This structure matters for families where there may be multiple beneficiaries with different interests or where the family needs time to organize before filing.
A survival action — separate from the wrongful death claim — belongs to the estate and captures any conscious pain and suffering the deceased experienced between the shooting and death, plus any medical costs incurred during that interval. Whether the deceased experienced conscious pain and suffering before death is a medical-forensic question that depends on the nature of the wound, the time to death, and the medical evidence. In many fatal shooting cases, death may follow rapidly — but even seconds of awareness can matter, and the question deserves investigation by the right medical experts.
The Statute of Limitations — Two Years
The general statute of limitations for Texas wrongful death and survival actions is two years from the date of death. This is not a soft deadline. It is a hard wall. After two years, the claim is gone — no matter how strong the facts, no matter how clear the liability, no matter how devastating the loss.
There are narrow exceptions. If the deceased was a minor, the limitations period may be tolled. If the claim is against a governmental unit (such as the City of Midland), the Texas Tort Claims Act imposes its own notice-of-claim deadlines that may be significantly shorter than two years — potentially months, not years. These governmental notice deadlines can be jurisdictional, meaning missing them kills the claim permanently even if the two-year SOL has not run. We will discuss the governmental-claims framework below.
The Texas Wrongful Death Act permits surviving spouses, children, and parents to recover for a death caused by another’s wrongful act, neglect, carelessness, unskillfulness, or default — the intentional shooting is the wrongful act, and the proximate cause of death.
Comparative Negligence in Texas
Texas follows a modified comparative negligence framework with a 51% bar. This means your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, and if you are more than 50% at fault, you cannot recover at all. In a mass shooting case, the deceased’s fault is almost always zero — but the defense will look for any argument to shift percentage points, because every point is money. In a case where a property owner’s negligent security is at issue, the defense may argue the deceased assumed a known risk by being in a particular location at a particular time. This is why the investigation has to be thorough enough to close every door the defense might try to open.
Negligent Security and Premises Liability — When a Property Owner Can Be Held Accountable for a Shooting
This is the primary civil theory that can produce meaningful recovery for a family devastated by a mass shooting — and it depends entirely on where the shooting happened and what the property owner knew before it did.
Texas premises liability for criminal acts of third parties is governed by common-law duties owed by landowners and occupiers to invitees. The landowner must protect against foreseeable criminal acts of third parties. The foreseeability element typically requires evidence of prior similar crimes at or near the location — though Texas courts have recognized that specific circumstances may establish foreseeability without a precise pattern of prior incidents.
The Foreseeability Engine
Foreseeability is the make-or-break element of a negligent security claim. It is not enough to show that crime exists in the world or even that crime exists in Midland. You must show that this specific property had a history of criminal activity that made the shooting foreseeable — that the property owner knew or should have known that this kind of danger existed and failed to take reasonable measures to protect the people on the property.
This is why prior incident reports and crime data for the shooting location are the engine of both liability and punitive exposure. The questions we ask are:
- How many police calls-for-service were made to this property in the months and years before the shooting?
- What types of crimes were reported — assaults, robberies, weapons offenses, drug activity?
- Were there prior incidents of violence or threats at or near the property?
- Did the property owner have security assessments or recommendations that were ignored?
- Was the property part of a Crime-Free Multi-Housing program or similar crime-reduction initiative?
- What security measures were in place — lighting, cameras, guards, access control — and were they adequate for the known risk?
- Were there internal communications about security concerns that went unaddressed?
The Security-Adequacy Question
Even when foreseeability is established, the property owner must have failed to take reasonable measures to protect against the foreseeable danger. What is “reasonable” depends on the nature and level of the known risk. A property with a history of minor property crimes may not need the same security measures as a property with a history of violent assaults. But a property with a history of violent crime that installed nothing — no improved lighting, no cameras, no access control, no security patrol — is a property where the gap between the known risk and the response is the negligence.
Expert witnesses in security adequacy and crime risk assessment are essential in these cases. A security expert bridges the gap between the raw crime data and the foreseeability of a mass shooting — and this is a challenging evidentiary hurdle, because courts often view mass shootings as low-probability events absent a specific threat pattern. The expert must connect the prior crime history to the specific security failures that allowed the shooting to occur.
Midland County Juries and Premises Liability
Midland County juries tend to be conservative on damages and skeptical of premises-liability claims. This is not a reason to avoid Midland County — it is a reason to build the case with exceptional thoroughness. Venue strategy and foreseeability proof are critical in any civil action arising from a shooting in this jurisdiction. The case must be built for a jury that will want to see a clear, documented connection between what the property owner knew, what they did (or failed to do), and what happened as a result.
The Going-and-Coming Rule — Workers’ Compensation and the Commute
The victim in this incident was a City of Midland employee who was killed while on his way to work on a Friday morning. This fact raises an important and often misunderstood question: does workers’ compensation cover an employee who is shot during the daily commute?
In Texas, the going-and-coming rule generally bars workers’ compensation recovery for injuries sustained during the daily commute to and from work. The rationale is that the employee is not yet acting in the course and scope of employment while traveling to or from the workplace. This is the default rule — but it has recognized exceptions that can change the analysis:
- Special missions: If the employee was on a special errand for the employer — not a regular commute but a specific task assigned by the employer — the going-and-coming rule may not apply.
- Travel as part of employment: If the employee’s job involves travel, or if the employer provided the transportation, different rules may govern.
- Premises-origin dangers: If the danger originated from the employer’s premises — for example, if the shooting occurred on the employer’s property or at the entrance to the employer’s facility — the analysis may shift.
The going-and-coming rule does not bar a third-party tort claim against a negligent property owner. Even if workers’ compensation is unavailable because the shooting happened during the commute, a premises-liability claim against the property owner where the shooting occurred is an independent theory that does not depend on the employment relationship.
This is the fork in the road that a generalist attorney might miss. The workers’ compensation lane may be closed by the going-and-coming rule — but the third-party tort lane against a property owner, a security contractor, or another defendant is wide open if the facts support it. Drawing this distinction early reorders the family’s entire understanding of the case.
The Texas Tort Claims Act — When a Governmental Employer May Be Liable
If the shooting occurred on City of Midland property, at a city facility approach, or if the city maintained a dangerous condition at or near the workplace that contributed to the attack, a claim against the City of Midland may be viable under the Texas Tort Claims Act. Claims against governmental units in Texas are subject to strict notice-of-claim deadlines and limitations on recoverable damages that are significantly different from claims against private defendants.
The TTCA imposes notice requirements that can be far shorter than the general two-year statute of limitations. Missing the governmental notice deadline can permanently bar the claim even if the two-year SOL has not expired. The notice must be provided to the correct governmental unit, in the correct form, within the correct time period — and these requirements are strictly construed.
Damage caps under the TTCA limit the recoverable amount against a governmental unit. These caps are statutory and may be significantly lower than what a jury could award against a private defendant. The specific cap amounts and their applicability depend on the nature of the claim and the governmental entity involved — these figures should be confirmed against the current statute at the time of filing.
If your loved one was a city employee and the shooting happened on city property or at a city facility, the Texas Tort Claims Act framework may be the path to recovery — but the clock on governmental notice is shorter than most families realize. This is one of the most time-sensitive elements of a case involving a municipal employee.
Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund — An Immediate Resource for Families
Regardless of whether a viable civil claim exists, the Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund may provide a supplemental source of recovery for the family. This state-administered fund is designed to help victims of violent crime and their families with expenses related to the crime — including funeral and burial costs, medical expenses, counseling, lost wages, and other crime-related costs.
The Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund is not a lawsuit. It is an administrative program that can provide financial assistance to eligible crime victims and their families. It does not require proving that anyone other than the criminal perpetrator was at fault. It does not replace a civil claim — but it can provide immediate financial relief while a civil case is being investigated and developed.
Key points about the Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund:
– Eligibility depends on the nature of the crime and the victim’s cooperation with law enforcement
– The fund has its own application deadlines
– Awards are capped at statutory limits
– The fund may seek reimbursement from any civil recovery — meaning if you receive Crime Victims’ Compensation and later recover from a civil defendant, the fund may be entitled to subrogation
– An attorney can help coordinate the Crime Victims’ Compensation application with any civil claim to maximize the family’s total recovery and avoid conflicts between the two
This fund is available to families regardless of whether the shooting happened on commercial property, a public roadway, or private property. It is the one resource that does not depend on the location question — and it should be explored immediately.
The Evidence Clock — What Exists, Who Holds It, and How Fast It Disappears
In any mass shooting case, evidence is being created, stored, and — critically — destroyed on timelines that are much shorter than most families realize. The evidence preservation clock is the single most urgent reason to contact a lawyer within days, not months, of a shooting death.
Surveillance Footage — The 7-to-30 Day Window
Surveillance footage from businesses near the shooting location is often the single most important piece of evidence in a mass shooting case. It establishes the sequence of events, the shooter’s movements, the timing relative to the victim’s commute, whether security cameras were present and functional at the location, and whether the property had adequate surveillance to deter or detect criminal activity.
Most commercial CCTV systems overwrite on a rolling cycle — typically 7 to 30 days, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. Once the footage is overwritten, it is gone. Not archived. Not retrievable. Gone. The only way to stop the overwrite is a formal preservation letter demanding that the property owner and any third-party security vendor freeze the footage. This letter must go out within days of the shooting — before the funeral, not after the insurance company calls.
Police Investigation Reports and Crime Scene Evidence
The police investigation provides the official factual record — the shooter’s identity, the exact location, the weapon details, witness statements, and any findings relevant to premises security adequacy. Scene processing happens immediately, but investigative files may not be released during an active criminal prosecution. Preservation letters to the investigating agency are warranted even though the file may be temporarily sealed. The criminal prosecution should be monitored closely because it will develop facts useful to any civil claim, though civil discovery may need to be coordinated around the criminal timeline.
Prior Incident Reports and Crime Data — The Foreseeability Spine
Prior incident reports and crime data for the shooting location are the make-or-break element for negligent security claims. Prior crimes at or near the property are the engine of both liability and punitive exposure. These records include:
- Police calls-for-service records for the specific address and surrounding area
- The property owner’s own internal incident reports and security logs
- Business records of prior criminal incidents on the property
- Crime grid data from local law enforcement showing crime density around the property
Police calls-for-service records should be requested promptly — they are obtainable through public records requests, but retention schedules vary by agency and some data may be purged or archived within a few years. The property owner’s internal security logs and incident reports are held by the business and may be destroyed per the business’s own retention policies. A preservation letter naming these specific records must go out immediately.
Witness Statements — Memory Degrades Rapidly
Witness statements and contact information from the scene corroborate the timeline, the shooter’s behavior, the location conditions, and any security failures. Independent witnesses counter the defense narrative. But memory degrades rapidly, and witnesses disperse and become difficult to locate within weeks of a mass-casualty event. Witness identification and statement preservation should begin immediately — every day that passes, another witness’s memory fades and another witness becomes harder to find.
Security Plans, Contracts, and Patrol Logs
If the shooting occurred at a commercial premises, security plans, contracts, and patrol logs for the property prove what security measures existed, whether they were followed, and whether the level of security was reasonable given the known risks. Security companies may destroy or overwrite logs per contract terms — immediate preservation demands are essential.
City of Midland Employment Records and Security Assessments
If the victim was a city employee, employment records, route or assignment documentation, and facility security assessments establish the employment status, work location, and whether the city had notice of dangers near the facility or on the commute route. Public-sector retention schedules vary, and security assessment documents may be destroyed under document-destruction policies if not preserved.
The Insurance Adjuster Playbook — What to Watch For and How to Counter It
In the days and weeks after a mass shooting, the insurance industry and the defense apparatus begin building their case — quietly, methodically, and with resources the family does not have. Here are the plays to expect and the counter to each one.
Play 1: The Quick Check with a Release Attached
A settlement check may arrive fast — sometimes within weeks — with a release buried under it or printed on the back. The release, once signed, extinguishes all claims against the paying party and potentially against related entities. This check arrives before the family has had time to understand the full scope of the loss, before the medical records are complete, and before any investigation has identified all responsible parties.
The counter: Never sign a release from an insurance company without having it reviewed by an attorney. A release signed in grief is still a release. The first offer is almost always a fraction of the case’s value — and in a mass shooting wrongful death case, the value can be substantial.
Play 2: The “Just Tell Us What Happened” Recorded Statement
Within days, someone may call to “check on the family” and ask the family to “just tell us what happened” — on a recording built to be quoted against the family later. This recorded statement is engineered to lock in a narrative before the family has had time to process the trauma, before the investigation is complete, and before the family has legal counsel. Every word can be used to minimize the claim, shift blame, or create inconsistencies that the defense exploits at deposition or trial.
The counter: Decline the recorded statement. You are not obligated to give one. If an insurance adjuster contacts you, the safest response is to provide the name and phone number of your attorney. Everything you say to an insurance adjuster — even “I’m doing okay” — can become evidence that the family is not suffering as much as they claim.
Play 3: The Premises “Not Our Responsibility” Defense
If the shooting occurred at a commercial property, the property owner’s insurance company will argue that the shooting was not foreseeable, that the property had adequate security, and that the criminal act of the shooter was an independent, superseding event that breaks the chain of causation. This is the standard defense in every negligent security case — and it is exactly why the foreseeability investigation (prior crimes, police calls-for-service, security assessments) has to begin immediately.
The counter: The foreseeability record is built from the property’s own crime history. If police were repeatedly called to the property, if prior violent incidents were reported and ignored, if security assessments recommended measures that were never implemented — that record is the answer to the “not foreseeable” defense. But the record has to be pulled before the property owner can sanitize it.
Play 4: The Blame-the-Victim Play
The defense may look for any argument to shift percentage points of fault onto the deceased — arguing the victim was in a dangerous area, took an unusual route, or should have been aware of the risk. Texas comparative negligence reduces recovery by the victim’s percentage of fault, and every point is money.
The counter: A thorough investigation that documents the victim’s normal routine, the reasonableness of the route, and the absence of any choice the victim made that contributed to the shooting. In a mass shooting, the victim’s fault is almost always zero — but the defense will still look, and the investigation must close every door.
Play 5: The “It Was a Random Act” Argument
The defense will characterize the shooting as a random, unpredictable act of violence that no security measure could have prevented. This argument is designed to defeat the foreseeability element of a negligent security claim.
The counter: The prior-crime record is the answer. A shooting is not “random” in a legal sense if the property had a documented history of criminal activity that made violence foreseeable. A security expert can connect the prior crime data to the specific security failures that allowed the shooting to occur — showing that reasonable security measures would have deterred or prevented the attack.
What a Mass Shooting Wrongful Death Case Is Worth
The value of a mass shooting wrongful death case depends almost entirely on identifying a solvent defendant with applicable insurance coverage or sufficient assets. The criminal perpetrator is likely judgment-proof — meaning a judgment against the shooter, while it establishes accountability, may not be collectible. This is why identifying a premises defendant with insurance is the most important value driver in the case.
The case value range for this incident is extraordinarily wide — from approximately $50,000 on the low end to potentially $5,000,000 or more on the high end — and the reason for that range is the binary nature of the case’s viability.
If the Shooting Occurred on a Public Roadway with No Commercial Nexus
If the shooting happened on a public roadway with no commercial or governmental property nexus, civil recovery is limited to:
– The criminal perpetrator’s assets (likely negligible)
– The Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund (statutorily capped)
– Any applicable insurance the shooter may have (unlikely in a criminal-shooting context)
In this scenario, the case value is near the low end of the range — limited by what the Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund can provide and what, if anything, can be recovered from the perpetrator.
If the Shooting Occurred at a Commercial Location with Prior Crime and Inadequate Security
If the shooting occurred at a commercial property with documented prior crime and inadequate security measures, a Texas negligent security wrongful death verdict could reach seven figures or higher — particularly given the mass-shooting context, the involvement of multiple victims, and the community impact. In this scenario:
– Economic damages include the victim’s lost earning capacity, future lost wages and benefits, funeral and burial expenses, and any medical costs incurred between the shooting and death
– Non-economic damages include the survivors’ mental anguish, loss of companionship, loss of counsel and advice, and the unique relational losses suffered by the family
– Punitive damages may be available if the property owner’s conduct demonstrates gross negligence or conscious indifference to a foreseeable danger — subject to Texas statutory caps on exemplary damages
Governmental Claims
If the claim is against the City of Midland under the Texas Tort Claims Act, damages would be subject to TTCA limitations, which cap recovery against governmental units at statutory amounts. These caps may be significantly lower than what a jury could award against a private property owner.
How the Number Is Built
A real damages number in a wrongful death case is not pulled from the air. It is built from:
- A forensic economist’s projection of the deceased’s lost earning capacity — the years of work, the wages, the benefits, the retirement contributions that will never be earned. For a municipal employee, this includes salary, health benefits, pension contributions, and any other employer-paid compensation.
- The personal consumption deduction — in a wrongful death case, the economist subtracts the portion of income the deceased would have spent on themselves, because the family’s claim is for the support they would have received, not the gross paycheck.
- Lost household services — the dollar value of the unpaid work the deceased did at home, from childcare to home maintenance, valued by the replacement-cost method.
- Funeral and burial expenses — documented, recoverable as economic damages.
- Medical costs incurred between the shooting and death — if any treatment was provided before death.
- Non-economic damages — mental anguish, loss of companionship, loss of counsel and guidance — the human losses that no receipt can measure.
- Present-value reduction — because a jury pays the whole future in one check today, the law reduces future losses to present value. The defense will argue for a high discount rate to shrink the number; the economist keeps that rate honest.
The defense will arrive at a number that is a fraction of this. The first settlement offer will be a fraction of that fraction. The case is built to close the gap between what the loss is actually worth and what the insurance company wants to pay.
The First 72 Hours — A Practical Roadmap for Families
If your family has been affected by a mass shooting, the first 72 hours are not about filing a lawsuit. They are about preserving the evidence that will make a lawsuit possible — and protecting the family from the defense apparatus that is already in motion.
What to Do
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Get medical care for anyone who was injured. Even if injuries seem minor, get evaluated. Medical records are evidence. Delayed treatment gives the defense an argument that the injury was not serious.
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Preserve everything. Do not delete any text messages, photos, voicemails, or social media posts. Do not clean or discard any personal effects. Do not give away or throw out the deceased’s belongings. Everything is potential evidence.
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Write down what you remember. Memory degrades fast. Write down everything you remember about the day — the timeline, who said what, what you saw, what you heard. Date the document. This is your contemporaneous record.
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Identify witnesses. If you have contact information for anyone who witnessed the shooting or its aftermath, write it down. Witnesses disperse. Memory fades. The sooner their statements are preserved, the stronger the case.
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Request police reports. You may be entitled to a copy of the police report. Contact the investigating agency (the Midland Police Department or the Midland County Sheriff’s Office, depending on jurisdiction) and request the report. It may not be available immediately during an active investigation, but the request should be made.
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Apply for Crime Victims’ Compensation. The Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund can provide immediate financial assistance for funeral costs, medical expenses, counseling, and lost wages. The application should be filed as soon as possible.
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Contact a lawyer. The preservation letter — the document that orders the property owner, the security company, and the investigating agency to freeze the evidence — should go out within days, not months. The day you call is the day the clock starts working for you instead of against you.
What NOT to Do
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Do not give a recorded statement to any insurance company. Not the property owner’s insurer, not the shooter’s insurer (if any), not any other liability carrier. Everything you say can and will be used to minimize your claim.
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Do not sign any release, settlement, or authorization. Do not sign anything from an insurance company without having it reviewed by an attorney. A release signed in grief is still a release.
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Do not post on social media. The insurance company and the defense will monitor social media. Photos, comments, and check-ins can be taken out of context and used to minimize the family’s loss or shift blame.
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Do not discuss the case with anyone except your attorney. Friends, family members, coworkers, and especially the media can be contacted by the defense for statements that may be used against the family.
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Do not wait. The evidence preservation clock is running. Surveillance footage is being overwritten. Witness memories are fading. Police calls-for-service records may be on a retention schedule. Every day that passes without a preservation letter is a day the defense is ahead.
Who We Are — Attorney911
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. We are a trial firm that takes Texas cases, handling wrongful death, catastrophic injury, and premises liability cases across the state. We do not get paid unless we win your case. The first consultation is free, and it is confidential.
Ralph P. Manginello — Managing Partner
Ralph Manginello has spent 27+ years in courtrooms, including federal court. He was a journalist before he was a lawyer — he knows how to find the story the evidence tells, and he knows how to tell it to a jury. He is a member of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and the Houston Bar Association. He is the lead counsel in the active $10M+ Bermudez v. Pi Kappa Phi / University of Houston hazing lawsuit in Harris County. He handles cases that involve corporate accountability, institutional negligence, and the kind of failures that let foreseeable dangers turn into catastrophes.
Lupe Peña — Associate Attorney
Lupe Peña is a former insurance-defense attorney. He spent years inside a national defense firm — the rooms where adjusters and their software decide how to deny, delay, and devalue people exactly like the families we now represent. He knows how claims are priced, how reserves are set, how the recorded-statement trap is engineered, and how surveillance and social-media monitoring work — because he used those tools from the other side. Now he uses that knowledge for injured clients. He is fluent in Spanish and conducts full consultations in Spanish without an interpreter.
What the First Call Feels Like
When you call 1-888-ATTY-911, you will speak to a live person — not an answering service, not a recording. We are available 24/7. The first conversation is free and confidential. We will listen to what happened. We will answer your questions. We will tell you honestly whether we think there is a case and what the next steps should be. If we are not the right fit for your family, we will tell you — and we will help you find someone who is.
We do not get paid unless we win your case. The fee is contingency — 33.33% before trial, 40% if the case goes to trial. You do not pay anything out of pocket. If there is no recovery, there is no fee.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sue the property owner if my loved one was shot at a business?
Yes — if the shooting occurred at a commercial property and the property owner knew or should have known about the risk of criminal activity on the property and failed to take reasonable security measures. This is a negligent security / premises liability claim, and it is the primary civil theory for holding a property owner accountable when a third party commits a violent crime on their land. The key question is foreseeability — whether prior crimes at or near the property made the shooting foreseeable.
How long do I have to file a wrongful death lawsuit in Texas?
The general statute of limitations for wrongful death in Texas is two years from the date of death. However, if the claim involves a governmental entity (such as the City of Midland), the Texas Tort Claims Act may impose much shorter notice deadlines that can be measured in months, not years. These governmental notice deadlines can be jurisdictional — meaning missing them permanently bars the claim even if the two-year SOL has not run. Do not assume you have the full two years. Contact a lawyer immediately to confirm the deadlines that apply to your specific situation.
What if my loved one was shot while commuting to work?
The going-and-coming rule in Texas generally bars workers’ compensation for injuries sustained during the daily commute. However, this rule does not bar a third-party tort claim against a property owner where the shooting occurred. Even if workers’ compensation is unavailable, a premises liability claim against the property owner is an independent theory that does not depend on the employment relationship. The commute question affects the workers’ compensation lane, not the negligent security lane.
Can I recover from the shooter directly?
You can obtain a civil judgment against the shooter for the intentional killing, but the shooter is likely judgment-proof — meaning they have no assets or insurance to satisfy the judgment. A civil judgment against the shooter still serves an important purpose: it establishes accountability and can support any applicable Crime Victims’ Compensation claims. But meaningful financial recovery usually requires identifying a solvent defendant — a property owner, a security contractor, or a governmental entity — with insurance or assets sufficient to compensate the family.
What is the Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund?
The Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund is a state-administered program that provides financial assistance to victims of violent crime and their families. It can help with funeral and burial costs, medical expenses, counseling, lost wages, and other crime-related expenses. It does not require proving that anyone other than the criminal perpetrator was at fault. It does not replace a civil claim, but it can provide immediate financial relief. The fund has its own application deadlines and award caps, and an attorney can help coordinate the application with any civil claim to maximize the family’s total recovery.
How much is a mass shooting wrongful death case worth?
The value depends almost entirely on whether a solvent defendant with applicable insurance can be identified. If the shooting occurred on a public roadway with no commercial premises nexus, recovery may be limited to Crime Victims’ Compensation and the shooter’s assets (likely negligible). If the shooting occurred at a commercial property with documented prior crime and inadequate security, a Texas negligent security wrongful death verdict could reach seven figures or higher. The case value cannot be meaningfully narrowed without confirming the exact shooting location, the property owner, and the prior-crime history at the site.
What evidence needs to be preserved after a mass shooting?
The most time-sensitive evidence includes: surveillance footage from businesses near the shooting location (which can be overwritten in 7 to 30 days); police investigation reports and crime scene evidence; prior incident reports and crime data for the shooting location (the foreseeability spine); witness statements and contact information (memory degrades rapidly and witnesses disperse); security plans, contracts, and patrol logs for the property; the shooter’s background and any employment connection to the location; and city employment records if the victim was a municipal employee. A preservation letter demanding that all of these records be frozen should go out within days of the shooting.
Do I need a lawyer if the police are already investigating?
Yes. The criminal investigation and any civil claim are completely separate legal processes. The criminal investigation determines whether the shooter is prosecuted and punished. It does not compensate the family. A civil claim — if viable — provides financial security for the family and holds accountable any property owner, security contractor, or other entity whose negligence contributed to the shooting. The criminal prosecution develops facts that may be useful to a civil claim, but civil discovery may need to be coordinated around the criminal timeline. A lawyer who understands both processes can coordinate them to maximize the family’s recovery while the criminal case proceeds.
Should I talk to the insurance company?
No. Do not give a recorded statement to any insurance company without consulting an attorney first. The insurance adjuster’s job is to minimize the claim — and everything you say can be used to do that. If an insurance adjuster contacts you, provide the name and phone number of your attorney. The safest response is to let your lawyer handle all communication with the insurance company.
How do I find the right wrongful death attorney for a mass shooting case?
Look for a firm with experience in wrongful death litigation, premises liability, and negligent security claims. Ask whether the firm has handled cases involving mass-casualty events. Ask about the fee structure — it should be contingency, with no out-of-pocket cost. Ask whether the consultation is free. Ask whether the firm has the resources to fund a complex investigation (security experts, forensic economists, accident reconstruction) without passing the cost to the family unless the case is won. And ask whether the attorney can explain the going-and-coming rule, the Texas Tort Claims Act, and the Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund — because if they cannot, they may not be the right firm for a case involving a shooting during a commute to a municipal job.
If You Are Searching at 2 a.m. — Call Us Now
If you are reading this in the middle of the night, in the middle of grief, in the middle of a future that just changed — you do not have to wait until morning. The phone is answered 24/7. The call is free. The conversation is confidential. And the preservation letter that freezes the evidence before it disappears can go out the day you call.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911. Or contact us online. We handle wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases across Texas. We do not get paid unless we win your case. And we serve your family fully in Spanish — Hablamos Español.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. This page is legal information, not legal advice. Nothing here creates an attorney-client relationship. But if any of it connected to what your family is going through, the next step is a conversation — and it costs nothing.