Southfield Hotel Shooting Lawyer: Holding the Westin and Other Responsible Parties Accountable for a 15-Year-Old’s Death
You are reading this page because two years have passed, no one has been arrested, and the silence has grown so loud that the only question left is whether the law has any answer for what happened to your child in that room at the Westin. The answer is yes, and the law is broader than most people realize. Hotels that profit from renting rooms to teenagers in the middle of the night owe more than a brochure. When their security falls short, when their staff does not ask the questions they were trained to ask, and when a child dies in a room that should never have been rented to that combination of people in the first place, Michigan’s wrongful-death law gives the family a path forward. The shooter may never face a criminal trial; the businesses that made the room available can still be held civilly liable. That is the work this page exists to explain.
At Attorney911 (The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC), we take these fights on contingency, free unless we win. Ralph Manginello has tried cases in state and federal court for more than 27 years; he was a journalist before he was a lawyer, and he still investigates first. Lupe Peña spent years on the other side of the table inside a national insurance-defense firm, which means he knows exactly how the carrier and the hotel’s lawyers are going to position this case before they do. Together, with a bilingual team, we work catastrophic-injury and wrongful-death cases across the country, including Michigan, and we are available 24/7. Hablamos Español.
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This page is built around a real incident: the shooting death of 15-year-old Tyler Johnson inside a guest room at the Westin Southfield Detroit, a property on the 10-Mile and Evergreen corridor in Southfield, Oakland County, Michigan, in February 2024. The Southfield Police Chief has publicly stated that the weapon used in the shooting was tied to a juvenile who was carrying it; that a second firearm, reported stolen from Flint in June 2023, was also in the room; and that no one in the room has cooperated with the investigation. The shooter has not been identified, charged, or tried. Two years later, the family is publicly calling for justice.
The legal question is not whether the criminal system will deliver it. The legal question is whether the civil system can. We believe it can, and below is the long version of how.
What Happened to Tyler Johnson at the Westin Southfield
Tyler Johnson was 15 years old. On the night of his death in February 2024, he was in a guest room at the Westin Southfield Detroit, a prominent property within a major commercial and hotel hub in the Metro Detroit area. Four other teenagers were in the room. According to statements released by the Southfield Police Department, after the shooting two of the teens fled the scene while the other two were detained near the elevator. Officers recovered from the room a spent .40 caliber shell casing, a 9mm extended magazine loaded with 20 live rounds, marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, and a digital scale, in addition to two firearms. Southfield Police Chief Elvin Barren has stated publicly that one of the detained minors was in possession of both firearms, that one of the guns had been reported stolen out of Flint in June 2023, and that the other was unregistered. Ballistics testing matched one of the recovered firearms to the shot that killed Tyler. No one in the room has talked to investigators. No charges have been filed. The shooter has not been identified, and the criminal case has reached a wall of silence.
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This is a horrifying set of facts on its own. What makes it a civil case, and not just a criminal one, is the role of the room itself. Tyler Johnson did not die in a public park, a vacant lot, or the back seat of a car. He died in a guest room at a major-brand, full-service hotel. The door to that room, the reservation, the key, the elevator ride, the floor where the room was located, the policy that decided whether those four other teenagers were ever going to be allowed in, the staff who were or were not on duty that night, the surveillance cameras that were or were not pointed at the right places, the locks on the door, the response when the shots rang out, the relationship between this Westin and the parents of the children who were checked in or sneaking in: all of those decisions are corporate decisions, made by a chain of people who will say they had no idea what was happening that night. The fact pattern laid out by the Southfield Police Department is one a jury can understand, and the question of who, besides the shooter, is legally responsible for the room, is one Michigan law answers.
The Hotel’s Duty of Care Under Michigan Law
A hotel is a commercial business that charges for rooms. The people who pay are invitees under Michigan premises-liability law, and a hotel owes them a duty of reasonable care to keep the premises reasonably safe. That duty is not theoretical. It is the legal obligation a hotel accepts in exchange for the money it collects, and it extends to foreseeable harms from third parties, including other guests, where the harm is reasonably foreseeable. Michigan has long applied this standard to commercial lodging, and the recent Michigan Supreme Court decision in Deas softened the old “open and obvious” doctrine, making it easier, not harder, for a jury to evaluate whether the warning signs were sufficient, the security was sufficient, and the response was sufficient. A hotel that rents a room to a 15-year-old, in the company of four other teenagers, with drugs and a stolen firearm in the room, has failed at almost every conceivable point in that chain of foreseeable care.
The legal theory in a case like this is negligent security. The plaintiff must show (1) the hotel owed a duty of care to the victim, (2) the hotel breached that duty by failing to provide reasonable security in light of foreseeable risks, (3) the breach was a proximate cause of the death, and (4) damages. Each of those elements in turn depends on a factual record that has to be built. What did the front desk know about the people checking in? Were ages verified? Was the credit card in someone over 18’s name? What did the night manager do? What was the policy on minor guests? Did the hotel have any history of similar incidents? Did the hotel have any system for screening who was allowed into guest rooms, beyond the lock on the door? The answers to those questions, and the documents that contain them, are the spine of the case. The police investigation has already confirmed enough of the scene to demand them.
Southfield Police have stated that a stolen firearm was in the room, that the firearm that killed Tyler was tied to a juvenile, and that the room contained a 9mm extended magazine loaded with 20 live rounds, marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, and a digital scale. That scene is not the product of an unanticipated intruder. That scene is the product of a room that was rented, accessed, and occupied by teenagers in a way that either the hotel failed to detect, failed to stop, or failed to respond to. Each of those is a separate breach of duty.
Who Can Be Held Accountable for Tyler’s Death
One of the most common misperceptions about cases like this is that the only person who can be held responsible is the person who pulled the trigger. In Michigan, that is not the law. The Wrongful Death Act, MCL 600.2922, allows the personal representative of the deceased to bring a civil action for the death of a person, and to recover damages for the loss that the surviving family has suffered. Critically, Michigan law permits actions not only against the person who caused the death directly, but against anyone whose negligence was a proximate cause, including property owners, business operators, and other third parties whose conduct contributed to the conditions that made the death possible.
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In a case like this, the responsible parties can include:
The Westin Southfield (and the entities that own and operate it). Westin is a brand within the Marriott International family of hotels. The property at 10-Mile and Evergreen is operated by a franchisee or management company under that brand, with the parent company exercising brand standards and collecting franchise fees. The civil complaint names the right defendants at the right level: the local operating entity that ran the hotel that night, the parent that controlled the brand and the systems, and the insurance carriers that stand behind each. The name on the building is not always the name that signs the check, and getting the structure right is part of the work.
The adult or individuals who arranged the room. Michigan law recognizes a theory of negligent entrustment, and a theory of negligence per se when an adult facilitates access to a place by minors who are, or should be known to be, engaged in conduct that creates an unreasonable risk of harm. The room did not rent itself. Whoever arranged for a 15-year-old to be in a hotel room with four other teenagers, with drugs and a stolen firearm present, carries separate civil responsibility for what happened in that room.
The parents of the armed minor. Michigan has a specific parental-responsibility statute, MCL 600.2913, that imposes liability on parents for the malicious or willful destruction of property by their minor children, capped at a property-damage limit. Beyond that statutory hook, common-law negligent-supervision claims against parents whose minor child is found to have been armed with a stolen and unregistered firearm, in a room where another minor is killed, are not foreclosed by that cap. The cap on property damage does not cap a wrongful-death claim. The question of whether the parents of the minor carrying the firearm knew or should have known of the access to a weapon is a separate factual question, and the answer is rarely that they were entirely unaware.
The shooter himself. The personal representative of Tyler’s estate can sue the shooter for wrongful death, intentional tort, and battery, and the fact that the shooter is a minor does not eliminate the claim. It does mean that the practical recovery, given the limited assets of a juvenile, often depends on whether the shooter had access to other insurance or assets. The shooter is not the only target, and in a case like this he is rarely the deepest pocket. He is, however, a named defendant, and the inclusion of his name is part of holding the whole picture accountable.
Any third party that supplied, transferred, or failed to secure the firearm. The recovered firearm that killed Tyler was reported stolen from Flint in June 2023. A firearm that is stolen and then used to kill a child in a hotel room in February 2024 has, by definition, traveled through hands between Flint and Southfield. Michigan’s negligence theories, and in some circumstances federal and state firearm-related statutes, can reach entities in the chain of custody, including the original owner who failed to secure the weapon and any subsequent transferee.
This is the anatomy of a negligent-security wrongful-death case. The defendants are not interchangeable, and the strategy against each is different. The hotel has a duty of care and an insurance tower. The adult who arranged the room has a negligent-entrustment exposure. The parents have a parental-responsibility exposure and a separate common-law negligent-supervision exposure. The shooter has a battery exposure. The chain of firearm custody has a negligence and possibly a statutory exposure. The civil case can pursue all of them simultaneously, because the personal representative is entitled to recover against any party whose negligence was a proximate cause, and the proceeds are then allocated by the jury’s apportionment.
Theories of Liability We Will Pursue
The legal theories available in a case like this are not theoretical. They are the specific, well-developed causes of action that Michigan courts recognize in commercial-premises wrongful-death cases. We will pursue all of them.
Negligent security. This is the central theory against the Westin. A hotel that rents rooms has a duty to provide reasonable security, which means: identifying foreseeable risks, screening guests in a way that is consistent with those foreseeable risks, training staff to recognize the warning signs of criminal activity, providing adequate surveillance, controlling access to guest floors, responding promptly to complaints, and acting on prior incidents. A jury deciding whether the Westin’s security was reasonable will weigh the staffing that night, the procedures in place, the history of similar incidents at the property, the prior warnings the hotel received, and the response after the shooting. The police statement that the scene contained a spent .40 caliber casing, a loaded 9mm extended magazine, marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, and a digital scale is itself evidence of what a reasonable security program should have prevented.
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Negligent entrustment and negligence per se. The adult or adults who arranged for the minors to be in the room have a separate, independent theory of liability. Michigan recognizes negligent entrustment when a person gives another person control over a dangerous instrumentality, or places another person in a position where harm to third parties is reasonably foreseeable. The room itself, in a case where drugs and a firearm ended up inside it, is a dangerous instrumentality. Whoever arranged for a 15-year-old to be in that room with the people and the things the Southfield Police Department has described is on the hook for the foreseeable harm.
Parental liability. Michigan’s parental-responsibility statute imposes a statutorily defined cap on parental liability for property damage caused by a minor. That cap does not extend to wrongful-death damages, and Michigan common law recognizes a separate cause of action for negligent parental supervision when the parent’s failure to exercise reasonable care over the minor child creates an unreasonable risk of harm to others. A minor in possession of a stolen firearm is, on the face of the police report, the product of a failure of supervision. The civil claim against the parents is not foreclosed by the property-damage cap.
Negligent hiring, training, and supervision of hotel staff. A hotel’s security is only as good as the people it hires and trains. If the night auditor was undertrained, if the security staff was off-post, if the policy on minor guests was unwritten, if the front desk followed a script that no teenager in America would be fooled by, the hotel is liable for its own corporate negligence in building a security program that did not work.
Civil conspiracy and aiding and abetting. Where a defendant knowingly participated in a venture that produced the harm, Michigan recognizes civil conspiracy and aiding-and-abetting tort theories. These are particularly relevant where the chain of firearm possession, the chain of drug supply, or the chain of adult facilitation of the gathering is established by the evidence.
The personal-representative wrongful-death action under MCL 600.2922. Michigan’s Wrongful Death Act is the procedural vehicle. It allows the personal representative of the deceased to bring the action, to recover for the loss of society and companionship, the loss of services, the loss of financial support, the conscious pain and suffering of the decedent where the death was not instantaneous, and the funeral and burial expenses. The damages are described in more detail below, but the framework is statutory, and the family does not need to prove the criminal case to recover.
“Whenever the death of a person or injuries resulting in death shall be caused by a wrongful act, neglect, or default of another person or persons, his or her personal representative may maintain an action and recover damages in the same manner and to the same extent as he or she could have done if the deceased had survived the injury.”
The point is that this is not a one-defendant, one-theory case. It is a layered, multi-defendant action with a clear statutory framework, and the structure is designed to reach whatever combination of defendants, theories, and assets is necessary to deliver a recovery that actually reflects what was lost.
The Evidence That Will Not Wait: What Must Be Preserved and How Fast It Disappears
One of the most difficult parts of a case like this is that the most important evidence is also the most perishable. The first 30 to 90 days after a hotel incident determine whether a case can be built. Surveillance video is typically overwritten on a rolling loop, often as short as 14 to 30 days, sometimes longer at upscale properties, and it is rarely retained without a written demand. Electronic key-card logs, which record every door access on a guest floor, are usually purged on the hotel’s standard retention cycle. Property management system records, including the reservation under which the room was booked, the credit card used, the length of stay, and any modifications to the reservation, live in databases that can be archived. Housekeeping and engineering logs, which would show whether staff entered the room, when, and what was reported, are routinely discarded. Police evidence, including the recovered firearms, the spent shell casing, the drugs, the magazine, and the scale, is held by the Southfield Police Department, but is subject to court orders, return of property, and chain-of-custody disputes.
The specific evidence we work to preserve, in a case like this, includes:
- Hotel surveillance video from every camera on the property covering the night in question, including the lobby, the elevator bank, the guest floor, the parking lot, and any service entrances. This is the most perishable item, and a preservation letter must go out within days.
- Electronic key-card logs and door-access records for the guest floor and the room itself. These show who entered, when, and how often, and they are the documentary record of who was in that room.
- The reservation, the credit-card authorization, the guest folio, and any related property management system entries. These identify who booked the room, who paid, and the relationship between the adults and the minors.
- Housekeeping, engineering, and security shift logs for the night in question. These show who was on duty, what was reported, and what was missed.
- The hotel’s written policies and training materials for minor guests, age verification, guest-floor access, security patrols, and incident response. These show what the hotel’s own corporate standard was, and where the actual conduct fell short.
- The 911 call, the Southfield Police Department incident report, the dispatch logs, and the body-worn camera footage of responding officers. These are public-records requests, and they must be made early, because the recordings can be purged.
- The chain of custody for the recovered firearms, the ballistics report, and the laboratory analysis. These tie the bullet that killed Tyler to a specific weapon, and the weapon to a chain of possession.
- The hotel’s prior incident reports, claims history, and any prior lawsuits or settlements involving security, drugs, weapons, or minors at this property. These are the pattern evidence, and they make the case for foreseeability.
We move fast because the evidence moves fast. The preservation letter, the public-records request, the spoliation demand, the expert engagement, and the witness interviews all begin the day a family calls. By the time the criminal case has gone silent, the civil discovery is already in motion.
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The Insurance Playbook: What the Hotel’s Lawyers and the Insurance Carrier Will Do
Before you ever reach a jury, you will encounter the hotel’s insurance carrier, and they will run a playbook. We know this playbook because Lupe Peña spent years defending these cases from the inside. He has been in the rooms where the strategy is set, where Colossus and similar valuation software priced the claim, where the independent medical examination was scheduled, and where the decision was made to lowball the first offer. We will tell you exactly what to expect, because knowing the play is half of beating it.
Play one: “We didn’t shoot anyone.” The hotel and its carrier will argue that the shooter is the only cause of the death, that the hotel had no control over the shooter’s decision to pull the trigger, and that proximate cause runs only to the person who fired the weapon. This is the most common defense in a negligent-security case, and it is almost always wrong as a matter of law. Michigan recognizes foreseeability-based proximate cause, and a hotel that rents a room to a configuration of people and conditions that produces foreseeable harm is a proximate cause of that harm, even if the specific shooter is also a cause. The answer to this play is evidence: the room, the age of the guests, the drugs, the stolen firearm, the magazine, the failure of staff to respond. The jury is asked to allocate fault across all the contributing parties, including the hotel.
Play two: “The shooter was unforeseeable.” The carrier will argue that no hotel could have predicted that a specific group of teenagers in a specific room on a specific night would produce a homicide, and therefore the duty of care did not extend to preventing this specific harm. The answer is the foreseeability record: the hotel’s prior incident reports, the national pattern of similar incidents at hotels, the brand’s own training materials, the staff awareness of drug and firearm activity at the property, and the actual events of the night. Foreseeability in Michigan is judged by what a reasonable hotel operator would have foreseen in light of what the operator knew or should have known. The deposition work on this point is where the case is won or lost.
Play three: “We had no notice.” Closely related to play two, the carrier will argue that nothing in the hotel’s prior record put it on notice that this group, this room, or this night posed a risk. The answer is discovery: prior incident reports, prior lawsuits, prior claims, prior 911 calls from the property, prior complaints from other guests, and any internal communications about security concerns. If the hotel’s own records show a pattern of similar issues, the lack-of-notice defense collapses. If the records have been lost, destroyed, or “cannot be located,” that is itself evidence of spoliation and shifts the case in the family’s favor.
Play four: “The minors’ parents were at fault.” The carrier will try to shift fault to the parents of the teenagers in the room, including Tyler’s own family, and the parents of the armed minor. Michigan’s modified comparative-fault rule (the 51% bar) means that any recovery by the family is reduced by the percentage of the family’s own fault, and is barred entirely if the family is found to be more than half at fault. The defense will argue that the parents should have known where their children were and what they were doing. The answer is the evidence: the hotel’s own security program, the hotel’s own age verification, the hotel’s own duty of care, and the legal principle that the hotel cannot delegate its duty of reasonable care to a parent. The jury is asked to allocate, and the hotel’s share is not zero.
Play five: “The criminal case is unresolved, so you can’t prove causation.” The carrier will argue that until the criminal case is resolved, the family cannot prove who fired the shot, and therefore cannot prove the hotel’s security failure caused the death. This is wrong. Michigan civil law does not require a criminal conviction to establish civil liability. The personal representative need only prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the hotel’s negligence was a proximate cause. The Southfield Police Department has already publicly identified the firearm that killed Tyler, the matching ballistics, the fact that a juvenile was carrying it, and the fact that the firearm was stolen. The criminal case is unresolved, but the civil evidence is already documented.
Play six: “We’ll make a quick offer.” Early in the case, the carrier will offer a settlement that sounds reasonable but is a fraction of the actual case value. The offer is calculated to close the case before the discovery work has revealed the full pattern, before the depositions have pinned the staff to a story, and before the experts have valued the lifetime loss. We will tell you when an offer is worth taking, and we will tell you when it is not. Most of these cases are not resolved on the first offer, and the first offer is almost always a lowball.
The defense playbook is the same playbook Lupe Peña used to defend these cases when he was on the other side. We know what is coming. That is one of the most concrete reasons this firm exists.
The Value of a 15-Year-Old’s Life: Damages in a Michigan Wrongful-Death Case
A case value is not a number plucked from the air. It is a calculation, and the calculation is built on specific categories of damage recognized under Michigan’s Wrongful Death Act, MCL 600.2922, and the companion survival doctrine. Based on our assessment of the operative facts and Michigan law, this firm’s honest range for a case like this runs from a low of approximately $2,500,000 to a high of approximately $7,500,000, depending on the strength of the liability case, the recoverable insurance, the conduct proven at trial, and the specific losses documented. The lower end of that range reflects a case where the evidence is contested and the recovery is limited to the hotel’s primary insurance; the upper end reflects a case where the hotel’s conduct is found to be grossly negligent, the pattern evidence is strong, and multiple defendants contribute to the recovery.
The categories of damage are concrete, and each has to be supported by evidence.
Loss of society and companionship. This is the human loss, and it is recoverable under Michigan law. Tyler’s parents are entitled to recover for the loss of his comfort, his society, his guidance, and his affection. The measure is not a precise accounting, but a jury is given the full picture of who Tyler was, what he would have contributed to his family over the rest of his life, and what is gone. The figure is supported by testimony, by a life-care economist, and by the documentary record of the family relationship.
Loss of financial support. A 15-year-old does not yet have a career, but Michigan law allows recovery for the loss of the support the decedent would have provided over a normal working lifetime. The calculation is built from actuarial worklife tables, the decedent’s likely educational trajectory, the parent’s earnings, and the family dynamic. For a minor, this calculation is conservative, because no one can prove what a 15-year-old would have earned, but it is also a real category of recovery.
Conscious pain and suffering of the decedent. If Tyler did not die instantaneously, his estate can recover for the pain, fear, and suffering he experienced between the moment of the shooting and his death. The medical record and the witness accounts of his last moments are the evidence. In a case involving a 15-year-old shot in the head, this category is not abstract; it is documented in the emergency response and the medical record.
Funeral and burial expenses. These are documented by invoice, and they are recoverable as a separate component of the damage claim.
Punitive and exemplary damages. Michigan does not generally allow punitive damages in ordinary negligence cases, but “exemplary damages” for malice or willful disregard of safety can be argued in cases where the defendant’s conduct rises above ordinary negligence. A hotel that ignored documented prior warnings, that trained staff to look the other way, or that operated a security program on paper only is a candidate for the heightened damages standard. The argument is not automatic, and we do not promise it, but it is part of the strategic conversation.
Survival damages. If the death was not instantaneous, the estate can also bring a survival action for the decedent’s pre-death pain and suffering, medical expenses, and lost earnings between the injury and the death. This is a separate action from the wrongful-death claim, but it is commonly brought together.
The dollar range is a range, and it is built on a number of variables that we will be transparent about as the case develops. We do not promise numbers; we build them. The range we have given you is the range this firm believes the case falls within based on the operative facts as we currently understand them, and the actual value will be determined by what the evidence supports, what the jury in Oakland County is likely to award, and the depth of the available insurance.
Michigan’s Wrongful Death Act and the Statute of Limitations
Michigan’s Wrongful Death Act is codified at MCL 600.2922. It permits the personal representative of a deceased person’s estate to bring a civil action for the death, and to recover damages for the loss suffered by the surviving family members. The Act is the procedural and substantive framework for the case. The operative principle is that the action belongs to the personal representative, the damages are measured by the loss to the family, and the case can be brought against any party whose negligence was a proximate cause.
“Whenever the death of a person or injuries resulting in death shall be caused by a wrongful act, neglect, or default of another person or persons, his or her personal representative may maintain an action and recover damages in the same manner and to the same extent as he or she could have done if the deceased had survived the injury.”
That is the statutory foundation. The family does not need a criminal conviction to bring the case. The personal representative does not need to name the shooter first. The case is a civil action, brought under the civil rules of evidence, judged by a preponderance of the evidence, and tried to a jury in the county where the death occurred or where the defendant resides.
The Michigan statute of limitations for a wrongful-death action is three years from the date of death. The clock starts running on the date of death, not the date of discovery. There are narrow exceptions for fraudulent concealment and for minors in some circumstances, but the safe rule is this: if you do not file within three years of the death, the case is barred. The death of Tyler Johnson in February 2024 means the case must be filed by February 2027, and the discovery work, the expert engagement, and the depositions all need to be done well before the filing deadline. Waiting until the last year is dangerous. Waiting until the last six months is malpractice-grade. We move now.
For survival actions, the Michigan statute of limitations is also three years, but the clock and the parties can differ from the wrongful-death action. We will advise the personal representative on both clocks as the case develops.
Michigan follows a modified comparative-fault rule. A plaintiff who is more than 50% at fault is barred from any recovery; a plaintiff who is 50% or less at fault recovers in proportion, reduced by the percentage of the plaintiff’s own fault. The defense will try to push the family above 50% to kill the case entirely, which is why the negligent-security and parental-supervision theories have to be developed early. The recent Michigan Supreme Court decision in Deas softened the open-and-obvious doctrine and made it easier for a jury to evaluate reasonable care rather than to dismiss a case on duty alone, which is a meaningful shift in the family’s favor.
What a Lawsuit Can and Cannot Do
A lawsuit cannot bring Tyler back. We say that plainly, because a family reading this page deserves to know what the law can and cannot do. A lawsuit cannot restore the relationship, cannot replace the years, cannot undo the silence from the witnesses in the room. What a lawsuit can do is hold the parties whose conduct contributed to the death accountable, can create a public record of what happened, can return a measure of financial stability to a family whose loss is also economic, and can change the way the businesses involved make decisions in the future. A case like this is not about revenge. It is about responsibility, and about making the cost of negligence visible to the next hotel that considers looking the other way.
The civil case is also independent of the criminal case. If the criminal case remains unresolved, the civil case can still proceed. The standard of proof is lower. The discovery tools are stronger. The defendant pool is broader. And the family has a voice in the civil courtroom that the criminal system has not given them.
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Why Families Wait, and Why Time Is Critical
Most families wait. The reasons are human: grief, the hope that the criminal system will deliver something, the natural resistance to turning a private loss into a public case, the fear of the cost, and the simple overwhelm of the days after a death. We understand each of these reasons, and we do not judge any of them. We will also tell you plainly that every day between the death and the preservation letter is a day the hotel’s lawyers are working to make the evidence disappear. The video overwrites. The staff moves on. The records get archived. The witnesses become harder to find. The insurance carrier’s playbook (Plays one through six above) starts running the moment the hotel hears that a family has called a lawyer. By the time the case is filed, the carrier has usually already taken the position it will hold for the next two years. We are not the only lawyers in the country who have watched a defendant prepare a case before the plaintiff has even decided to file one.
That is why the first phone call matters as much as the first courtroom appearance. The preservation letter, the public-records request, the spoliation demand, the spoliation-of-evidence letter to the hotel, the expert engagement, and the witness interview plan all begin the day the family calls. We do not need the case to be filed to begin the work. We need the family to be ready to start. We have done this work hundreds of times, and we know exactly what the next 30 days should look like.
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About Attorney911
We are The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC, doing business as Attorney911. We have been in business since July 18, 2001, more than 24 years, with aggregate recoveries of more than $50,000,000 across the firm’s history. We take these cases on contingency: 33.33% before trial, 40% if the case goes to trial. We do not get paid unless we win. The initial consultation is free, and our staff is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, because catastrophic loss does not wait for business hours.
Ralph P. Manginello is the managing partner. He has been licensed to practice law since November 6, 1998, more than 27 years, and is admitted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, including the Bankruptcy Court. He earned his J.D. at South Texas College of Law Houston in 1998 and his B.A. in Journalism and Public Relations at the University of Texas at Austin. He was a journalist before he was a lawyer, and the habit of investigation has never left his practice. He has tried cases in state and federal court for more than two decades, and he has been lead counsel in multi-million-dollar cases including the active $10M+ hazing lawsuit filed in Harris County, Texas, in November 2025. He is a member of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, the Houston Bar Association, the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Pro Bono College of the State Bar of Texas, the Million Dollar Trial Lawyers Association, the National Association of Italian Lawyers, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Houston. He has produced more than 290 educational videos on catastrophic-injury and wrongful-death law.
Lupe Peña is an associate attorney at the firm. He is a third-generation Texan with family roots to the King Ranch, born, raised, and living in Sugar Land, Texas. He earned his J.D. at South Texas College of Law Houston in May 2012 and his B.B.A. in International Business at Saint Mary’s University in San Antonio in 2005, and he was admitted to practice on December 6, 2012. Before joining the firm, Lupe spent years as an insurance-defense attorney at a national defense firm, where he worked inside the rooms where carriers set reserves, chose experts, and decided how to value claims like yours. He knows how Colossus and similar software work, how independent medical examinations are selected, how surveillance is deployed, and how delays are used as a tactic. He is now on your side of that table. Lupe is fluent in Spanish, and he conducts full client consultations in Spanish without an interpreter. Hablamos Español.
Learn more about Ralph Manginello’s background.
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Our team is bilingual, our investigators are full-time, and our case management is built to keep a family informed without overwhelming them. We will not promise a result. We will not promise a verdict. We will promise that we will investigate this case the way we would investigate a case involving our own family, and we will fight it as long as it takes. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Southfield Police have said the criminal case has hit a wall of silence. Can the family sue even if no one has been charged?
Yes. Michigan’s wrongful-death statute allows the personal representative of Tyler’s estate to bring a civil case against any party whose negligence was a proximate cause of the death, regardless of whether the criminal case has produced an arrest or a conviction. The civil standard of proof is a preponderance of the evidence, lower than the criminal standard of beyond a reasonable doubt. The Southfield Police Department has already publicly identified the firearm that killed Tyler, the matching ballistics, the fact that a juvenile was carrying the weapon, and the fact that the firearm was stolen. The civil case can build on that evidentiary record even where the criminal case has not.
Who would the family sue in a case like this?
The complaint would name the entities that own and operate the Westin Southfield Detroit at the corporate and property level, the adult or adults who arranged the room, the parents of the armed minor (under Michigan’s parental-responsibility statute and common-law negligent-supervision theories), the shooter (for battery and wrongful death), and any party in the chain of custody for the stolen firearm. The defendants are not interchangeable, and the strategy against each is different. We will advise the personal representative on the right combination as the investigation develops.
How long does a wrongful-death case take in Michigan?
A wrongful-death case in Michigan typically takes 18 months to three years from filing to resolution, depending on the complexity of the case, the number of defendants, the court’s docket, and whether the case settles or goes to trial. The first 90 days are dedicated to evidence preservation and the filing of the lawsuit. The next 6 to 12 months are spent in discovery, including depositions of the hotel staff, the adults who arranged the room, the parents of the minors, expert engagement, and document production. The case is usually resolved either at a mediation shortly before trial or at trial itself. We will give you a realistic timeline once the case is filed and the court’s calendar is set.
What is the statute of limitations for a wrongful-death case in Michigan?
The Michigan statute of limitations for wrongful-death actions is three years from the date of death. Tyler’s death in February 2024 means the case must be filed by February 2027. The clock starts on the date of death, not the date of discovery, and there are narrow exceptions that may apply in a case involving a minor. We do not recommend relying on the exceptions. We recommend filing well before the three-year mark.
How much does it cost to hire a wrongful-death lawyer in Michigan?
We work on contingency, which means the family pays nothing up front and we are paid only if we recover. Our standard contingency fee is 33.33% of the gross recovery before trial and 40% if the case proceeds to trial. Costs of litigation (filing fees, expert fees, deposition transcripts, exhibits) are advanced by the firm and recovered from the settlement or verdict at the end. The initial consultation is free. We will not ask a grieving family to pay us to fight a hotel’s insurance carrier.
Is a hotel legally responsible when a child is shot in a guest room?
A hotel is a commercial business that charges for rooms. Under Michigan law, a hotel owes its guests a duty of reasonable care to keep the premises reasonably safe, and that duty extends to foreseeable harm from third parties. Whether a particular hotel met that duty is a question of fact for a jury. The jury will weigh the hotel’s security program, the staff training, the screening of guests, the response to warning signs, and the hotel’s history of similar incidents. In a case where a 15-year-old was shot in a guest room that contained drugs, a stolen firearm, and an extended magazine of ammunition, the jury will have a great deal to weigh, and a great deal of room to find that the hotel did not.
What if the shooter is a minor?
The shooter can still be sued. The personal representative of Tyler’s estate can bring a wrongful-death and battery action against the shooter regardless of age, and the fact that the shooter is a juvenile does not eliminate the civil claim. Practically, however, a juvenile shooter often has limited assets and limited insurance, which is one of the reasons the case is built around the other defendants, including the hotel, the adult who arranged the room, the parents of the armed minor, and any party in the chain of custody of the firearm. The complaint will name the shooter so that the entire picture is in the case.
What if the family was not told that Tyler was at the Westin that night?
Michigan law, and the common law of most states, does not require a parent to know the precise location of a 15-year-old at all times in order to recover for the death of that child. The legal question in a wrongful-death case is not whether the family was a perfect parent. The legal question is whether the hotel met its own duty of reasonable care. A hotel that rents a room to a 15-year-old, with drugs and a stolen firearm present, has failed to meet that duty regardless of what the parents knew. The hotel cannot delegate its duty of care to a parent.
Can the family sue if Tyler was not the person who rented the room?
Yes. A wrongful-death action in Michigan belongs to the personal representative of the deceased, and the defendants can include any party whose negligence was a proximate cause of the death, regardless of whether the deceased was the named guest. A 15-year-old who was shot in a guest room has standing to recover through his estate, and the hotel that allowed him to be in that room has potential liability.
Will the case go to trial?
Most civil cases settle before trial, and many settle during or after mediation. The defense will usually make a settlement offer once the discovery is complete and the cost of trying the case has become clear. We will advise the family on whether to accept a settlement based on the offer, the strength of the case, the risk of an unfavorable verdict, the family’s needs, and the parties’ financial situation. If the case does not settle on terms that are fair, we will try it. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
How long after the death can evidence still be found?
The most perishable evidence, including hotel surveillance video, can be overwritten on a rolling 14 to 30 day cycle, depending on the hotel’s system. Electronic key-card logs and property management system records are typically retained for 30 to 90 days, sometimes longer. Police evidence is held in the custody of the Southfield Police Department, but it is subject to court orders and chain-of-custody issues. The single most important step in any case like this is the preservation letter, sent within days of the family’s decision to consult with a lawyer. We send that letter the day we are retained.
What if the family does not want a public lawsuit?
We hear this concern often, and we take it seriously. A civil wrongful-death case is not a media event by default. The complaint is filed in court, the discovery is conducted under protective order in most cases, and the medical and personal information about the decedent is filed under seal where appropriate. The case becomes public only if the defense forces it into the open or if the case proceeds to a public trial. We can structure the case to maximize privacy, and we will walk the family through the disclosure rules in Michigan before any filing is made.
What happens if the case settles?
If the case settles, the family receives a negotiated amount, the defendants receive releases, and the case is closed. The settlement amount is confidential in most cases, but the family’s right to privacy is protected. We will advise the family on the structure of any settlement, including the tax treatment, the allocation among the various claims, and the distribution among the heirs. We will also advise the family on whether to accept a structured settlement (payments over time) or a lump sum.
How does the case interact with the criminal case?
The civil case and the criminal case are separate. The civil case is brought by the personal representative of the estate and is tried to a jury under the civil standard of proof. The criminal case is brought by the State of Michigan and is tried to a jury under the criminal standard of proof. The two cases can proceed simultaneously, and evidence developed in one can be used in the other, but the outcomes are independent. A criminal acquittal does not bar a civil recovery. A civil verdict does not require a criminal conviction. The family can pursue the civil case regardless of what happens in the criminal proceeding.
Does Michigan cap damages in wrongful-death cases?
Michigan does not impose a general statutory cap on wrongful-death damages. The recovery is determined by the jury based on the evidence, within the limits of the insurance coverage available. In cases involving a hospital or a medical malpractice defendant, certain statutory caps can apply, but those caps are not generally relevant in a negligent-security hotel case.
How do I get started?
Call us. The number is 1-888-ATTY-911. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The consultation is free. We will listen to what happened, we will explain the law as it applies to your case, and we will tell you whether we can help. If we are not the right fit, we will tell you that too. We do not pressure families to retain us. We answer the call when it comes, and we earn the case by doing the work.
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If your family is facing what Tyler’s family is facing, we want to hear from you. The call is free, the conversation is confidential, and the next step is one you can take today. We will explain the law, we will lay out the strategy, and we will tell you what the evidence preservation timeline looks like. We will not promise a verdict. We will not guarantee a result. We will promise the work. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. If you are ready to start, we are ready to fight.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911. Free consultation. No fee unless we win. Hablamos Español. The sooner the evidence preservation work begins, the stronger the case will be.