Ector County Shooting on W. 57th Street: Your Legal Rights After the Loss of Quincy Devion Price
If you are reading this at the kitchen table at 2 a.m., with a funeral to plan and a hospital phone still in your hand — we are talking to you. Not to the internet. To the person whose family was just torn open on W. 57th Street in Ector County, who learned at 3:27 in the morning on January 1, 2026, that a shots-fired call had become a death and a woman fighting for her life at Medical Center Hospital in Odessa. To the person who does not yet know that the criminal arrest of the shooter and the civil right to pursue compensation are two completely different things — and that the clock on one of them is already running while the evidence that decides the case is already dying.
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. We are trial lawyers who take shooting, negligent-security, and wrongful-death cases in Texas. This page is not a news article. It is the legal map of what happens next: what the law actually gives you, what the property owner’s insurance company is already doing, what evidence is disappearing on a clock measured in days, and what a real case looks like from the inside — built by people who have sat across from insurance adjusters and know their playbook from the other side of the table.
What happened to Quincy Devion Price and to the woman who was shot multiple times beside him was not an accident in the way the law uses that word. It was an intentional act of violence, and the man Ector County investigators say pulled the trigger — Nathaniel Ray Anthony Tinner — was arrested in Arlington and is facing a murder charge. But the criminal prosecution, however important, will not pay for the funeral, the hospital bills, the lost income, or the life that was taken. That is a separate fight, on a separate timeline, in a separate courthouse — and it is the fight this page is about.
What Happened on W. 57th Street
In the early hours of January 1, 2026, Ector County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a shots-fired call in the area of W. 57th Street — a corridor in the unincorporated outskirts of Odessa that includes a mix of residential properties, small commercial establishments, and multi-family housing. The fact that the Ector County Sheriff’s Office responded, rather than the Odessa Police Department, tells us something important about jurisdiction: the shooting occurred outside Odessa’s municipal limits, in a part of the county where law enforcement presence is thinner, response times can be longer, and the baseline standard for security on private property may differ from what city ordinances demand inside the city limits.
When deputies arrived, they found two victims. Quincy Devion Price was pronounced dead at the scene. A woman — whose identity has not been publicly released — had been shot multiple times and was transported to Medical Center Hospital, the principal regional trauma center serving Ector County and the broader Permian Basin. She was alive and receiving treatment as of the last public reporting. The suspect fled the scene; investigators obtained a murder warrant and Tinner was later located and arrested without incident in Arlington, Texas — roughly 350 miles east of where the shooting occurred.
The Ector County Sheriff’s Office investigation remains active. That single fact — “active investigation” — has consequences we will return to, because it is the doorway to evidence that the civil case depends on, and because it is on a clock the reader cannot see.
Criminal Prosecution Is Not Civil Recovery — Understanding the Difference
This is the first thing every family in this situation needs to hear, and the thing most people get wrong.
The criminal case against the identified shooter is the State of Texas v. Nathaniel Ray Anthony Tinner. It is prosecuted by the Ector County District Attorney’s Office. Its purpose is to determine whether the shooter committed a crime and, if so, to punish him — prison, potentially for life. The family of Quincy Devion Price and the surviving victim are not the plaintiffs in that case. They are witnesses, and in some proceedings they may have the right to be heard, but they do not control the case and they do not receive a judgment from it.
The criminal case will not produce:
- Compensation for Quincy Devion Price’s funeral and burial expenses
- Compensation for the medical bills the surviving woman is accumulating at Medical Center Hospital with every hour of surgery, ICU care, and rehabilitation
- Compensation for the income Quincy Devion Price would have earned over his lifetime
- Compensation for the mental anguish of the family who lost him
- Compensation for the pain and suffering the surviving victim experienced when she was shot multiple times and the psychological trauma she will carry forward
- Compensation for the permanent scarring, the lost earning capacity, the altered future
Those things come from a civil case — a wrongful death and survival action filed by the family and the estate, and a personal injury action filed by the surviving victim, against every party whose choices made this shooting possible or whose failure to act allowed it to happen. The criminal case and the civil case can proceed at the same time, but they are entirely separate. One ending in a conviction does not automatically win the other. One ending in an acquittal does not automatically lose the other — the burden of proof is different, and a civil case can succeed even where a criminal prosecution fails.
This is why a family can watch a murderer go to prison and still receive nothing — and it is why the civil case has to be built on its own foundation, with its own evidence, on its own timeline.
The Shooter’s Civil Liability and Why It Is Not the End of the Story
The identified shooter is civilly liable for what he did — that is not a contested question. The intentional tort of battery is established by the act of shooting two people. A civil judgment for battery and wrongful death against him is, in theory, straightforward.
But here is the hard truth that every experienced trial lawyer knows and that most families learn too late: an individual who commits a criminal shooting is almost always judgment-proof. That means he has no assets worth pursuing, no insurance that covers intentional criminal acts (nearly every liability policy contains an intentional-acts exclusion), and no realistic ability to satisfy a judgment. A jury could return a $50 million verdict against the shooter tomorrow, and the family would collect approximately nothing from him.
This is not defeat. It is the beginning of the real investigation — because it forces the question that actually decides whether a civil case has value: who else is responsible?
Negligent Security: When a Property Owner Is Responsible for a Shooting
This is the make-or-break theory for any meaningful civil recovery in a shooting case, and it works like this.
Texas premises liability law classifies people who enter property as invitees, licensees, or trespassers — and the highest duty is owed to invitees. An invitee is someone who is on the property for a purpose connected to the property owner’s business or for a mutual benefit. If the shooting on W. 57th Street occurred at a commercial establishment — a store, a bar, a club, a restaurant, a gas station, a parking lot serving a business — or at a multi-family residential property like an apartment complex, the people who were shot may well have been invitees. And to invitees, Texas law imposes a duty that includes protection against foreseeable criminal acts of third parties.
Texas premises liability law classifies entrants as invitees, licensees, or trespassers, with the highest duty owed to invitees — including a duty to protect against foreseeable criminal acts of third parties when the landowner has superior knowledge of the danger.
That sentence is the foundation of the entire civil case. But it raises the question that every negligent-security case turns on: what makes a criminal act “foreseeable”?
Foreseeability is proven through prior similar incidents — prior police calls for service to the property, prior crime reports, prior incidents of violence at or near the location. If the property where this shooting occurred had a history of late-night disturbances, prior assaults, prior weapons calls, prior drug activity, or prior police responses — and the owner knew or should have known about that history — then the law says the shooting was foreseeable. And if the shooting was foreseeable, the owner had a duty to take reasonable security measures to prevent it.
What are reasonable security measures? That depends on the property and the threat, but the recognized measures include:
- Adequate lighting — especially in parking areas and walkways where a 3:27 a.m. shooting is more likely to occur in darkness
- Access control — gates, keyed entry, fencing for multi-family residential properties
- Surveillance cameras — functional, monitored, and retained long enough to be useful
- Security patrols — on-site guards or contracted security for properties with a known crime history
- Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) measures — the industry-standard framework for designing out crime risk, published by ASIS International and widely recognized as informing the standard of care for commercial property owners
If the property owner had notice of prior criminal activity and failed to implement reasonable measures — or implemented measures that were inadequate for the known threat — that failure is negligence, and the property owner can be held liable for the harm that followed. This is not a speculative theory. It is a well-established cause of action in Texas premises liability law, and it is the primary path to meaningful civil recovery in a shooting case where the shooter himself is judgment-proof.
There is a threshold determination that drives the entire case value, and we want to say this plainly: identifying the exact parcel where the shooting occurred on W. 57th Street, and its ownership and management structure, is the single most important investigation in this case. Everything flows from that. If the shooting occurred on a commercial or multi-family residential property with a documented history of prior criminal incidents and a property owner who failed to implement reasonable security — the case has substantial value. If the shooting occurred on a private residential lot with no prior crime history and no commercial exposure — the viable civil recovery narrows to the Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund and whatever assets the shooter may have, which are likely negligible.
That binary — viable premises defendant or no viable premises defendant — is why case values in shooting cases range so widely, and it is why the investigation has to start immediately. For a deeper look at how we approach premises liability cases involving violence on commercial and residential property, you can read more about our premises liability and negligent security practice.
Texas Wrongful Death Law: Who Can File and What Damages Are Recoverable
Texas wrongful death and survival actions are governed by the Texas Wrongful Death Act. The statute of limitations is two years from the date of death — meaning the deadline to file a wrongful death claim for Quincy Devion Price runs from January 1, 2026. That sounds like a long time. It is not. The evidence that the case depends on — surveillance footage, witness statements, police dispatch records — is disappearing on a clock measured in days and weeks, not years. The two-year deadline is the back wall. The real deadline is the evidence-preservation clock, which we address in detail below.
Who can file a wrongful death claim in Texas? The Act provides a statutory hierarchy of beneficiaries:
- Surviving spouse — first priority
- Surviving children (including adult children) — first priority, alongside spouse
- Surviving parents — if there is no surviving spouse or child
- The personal representative of the estate — if no statutory beneficiary files within three months of the death
The damages recoverable in a Texas wrongful death action include:
- Loss of earning capacity — the income Quincy Devion Price would have earned over his expected working lifetime, reduced to present value
- Loss of care, maintenance, support, and advice — the practical, daily contributions he made to his family that now have to be replaced
- Loss of companionship and society — the human relationship that was taken
- Mental anguish — the grief, the emotional pain, the psychological injury of losing a family member to violence
- Funeral and burial expenses
Texas is one of the states where a jury may compensate the value of a lost life itself — not just the paychecks that stopped. That is a significant advantage, and it is one the insurance company’s lawyers know well. There is no general statutory cap on non-economic damages in non-medical-malpractice personal injury or wrongful death cases in Texas. That means mental anguish, loss of companionship, and pain and suffering are not arbitrarily limited by a legislative ceiling the way they are in some other contexts.
The Survival Action: What the Estate Recovers Separately
Wrongful death is not the only claim. Texas law also recognizes a survival action — a claim that belongs to the estate of Quincy Devion Price, not to the statutory beneficiaries. The survival action carries forward the claim the decedent would have had if he had survived: the pain, suffering, and terror he experienced between the moment he was shot and the moment he died, plus any medical expenses incurred in that interval.
Survival damages are distinct from wrongful death damages. They pass to the estate, not to the surviving family members directly. But they are part of the total recovery, and in a case where the victim survived even briefly after being shot — conscious, in pain, aware of what was happening — the survival action can be a meaningful component of the case value. The autopsy report and the emergency response records will establish the timeline between injury and death, and that timeline is what the survival damages are built on.
Texas Comparative Fault and the 51% Bar
Texas follows a modified comparative negligence framework with a 51% bar rule. In plain language: if the person filing the claim is found to be 51% or more at fault for their own injury or death, they are barred from recovering anything. If they are found to be 50% or less at fault, their recovery is reduced by their percentage of fault but is not eliminated.
In a shooting case, this rule matters in a specific and ugly way. The defense — whether it is the shooter’s lawyer or the property owner’s insurance company — will try to pin fault on the victims. They will ask: what were you doing on W. 57th Street at 3:27 a.m.? Did you know the shooter? Was there a dispute? Were you involved in something that led to this? Every one of these questions is designed to push the victim’s fault percentage above 50% and extinguish the claim.
This is why we say, with absolute conviction: your loved one’s presence at a location at a particular hour is never a defense to the violence committed against him. Being on a street at 3 a.m. is not consent to be shot. Knowing the person who shot you is not an assumption of the risk of being shot. The defense will try to make the victim’s choices the story. Our job is to make the defendant’s choices the story — the shooter’s choice to pull the trigger, and the property owner’s choice to leave a foreseeable danger unaddressed.
The Evidence Clock: What Is Disappearing Right Now
This is the section we wish every family would read in the first 72 hours, because it is the section that decides whether a case can be built at all.
Surveillance footage from nearby properties and any on-site camera systems. This is the single most perishable evidence in a shooting case. CCTV systems in residential and small commercial areas typically overwrite on a rolling cycle — commonly 7 to 30 days. Every property within camera range of the incident scene on W. 57th Street may hold footage that captures the shooting itself, the suspect’s arrival and departure, the number of shots fired, and — critically for the premises liability case — the lighting conditions, the presence or absence of security measures, and the activity patterns at the property in the hours and days before the shooting. Once that footage is overwritten, it is gone. It cannot be recovered. A preservation letter — a formal demand that the property owner and every neighboring property owner lock down and preserve all surveillance footage — has to go out immediately. Not after the funeral. Not after the criminal case resolves. Now.
The Ector County Sheriff’s Office complete investigative file. This file contains the crime scene evidence, witness statements, ballistic analysis, dispatch logs, body camera footage from the responding deputies, and the suspect interview records. It is the backbone of both the criminal prosecution and the civil case. Civil counsel should file open-records requests promptly — though full production may await completion of the criminal case, the request itself establishes the timeline and the right to access.
Prior police calls for service and crime reports for the incident location and surrounding area. This is the cornerstone of any negligent security claim. Prior calls for service — the CAD (Computer-Aided Dispatch) records showing every time police were dispatched to the property — are what establish foreseeability. They show the property owner was on notice of criminal activity. These records are maintained by ECSO under retention schedules, but prompt request through proper channels is essential before any purging occurs. If the property where the shooting occurred had 10, 20, 50 prior police calls for disturbances, assaults, drug activity, or weapons — that history is the case. And if that history is not requested and preserved, the property owner can later argue the shooting was unforeseeable because “we had no history of problems.”
Medical records from Medical Center Hospital for the surviving victim. These documents the full extent of the gunshot wounds, the surgical interventions, the complications, the prognosis, the rehabilitation needs, and the future medical requirements. They require HIPAA authorization from the victim or her legal representative. Hospital records are generally preserved per retention policies, but they should be requested without delay — and the full imaging (not just the radiologist’s report) should be preserved for any later expert review.
Property records, deed transfers, and management or security contracts for the incident location. These identify the legal owner, any property management company, and any contractual security obligations. Public deed records are stable, but private management agreements and security contracts may be destroyed by property owners who anticipate litigation. Identifying the ownership and management structure is the threshold determination that dictates whether a viable civil case exists.
Autopsy report and toxicology findings for Quincy Devion Price. These establish the cause and manner of death, the ballistic trajectory, the pre-death factors, and any toxicology relevant to the survival action damages. The autopsy is typically completed by the regional medical examiner’s office within 30 to 90 days of death. The ballistic trajectory evidence — the path the bullet took through the body — can corroborate witness accounts of the shooting and is essential for reconstructing the event.
The Medicine of Multiple Gunshot Wounds
We want to speak to this with the specificity the surviving victim’s family needs, because the medical reality of multiple gunshot wounds is not something most people understand until they are living through it — and the insurance company is counting on that lack of understanding to minimize the claim.
A single gunshot wound is a catastrophic injury. Multiple gunshot wounds — the surviving victim was shot, in the language of the report, “multiple times” — multiply the damage, the surgical burden, the recovery timeline, and the long-term consequences in ways that are not simply additive. Each wound creates its own damage path through tissue, and the combination creates risks that a single wound does not: greater total blood loss, greater risk of infection, greater surgical complexity, longer anesthesia time, longer ICU stay, and a recovery trajectory that is measured in months and years, not days and weeks.
The specific injuries depend on where the bullets struck — and we do not have that information yet. But the categories of harm in a multi-shot attack include:
Damage to internal organs. Bullets do not simply pierce — they tumble, fragment, and create temporary cavities that stretch and tear tissue far beyond the bullet’s direct path. A gunshot to the abdomen can damage the liver, spleen, intestines, or kidneys. A gunshot to the chest can damage the lungs, heart, or great vessels. Each of these carries its own surgical intervention — repair, resection, sometimes removal — and its own long-term consequences.
Vascular injury. A bullet that strikes a major artery or vein can cause life-threatening hemorrhage. The repair may require a vascular surgeon, a graft, and a prolonged recovery. If the blood supply to a limb was compromised, there may be permanent functional loss even after the vessel is repaired.
Fractures and orthopedic damage. A bullet that strikes bone can shatter it, creating comminuted fractures that require open reduction, internal fixation, plates, screws, and sometimes bone grafts. The recovery is measured in months, and the hardware may be permanent.
Permanent scarring and disfigurement. Every gunshot wound leaves a scar. Entry wounds, exit wounds, and surgical scars — the laparotomy incision, the thoracotomy incision, the orthopedic fixation scars — accumulate. In Texas, permanent disfigurement is its own category of damages, and it is compensable. These scars are not cosmetic inconveniences. They are permanent physical reminders of a violent attack, and the law recognizes them as such.
Nerve damage. Bullets that pass near or through nerves can cause permanent numbness, weakness, or paralysis in the affected area. Nerve injuries may not be fully assessable until months after the shooting, when the nerve has either regenerated or been determined to be permanently damaged.
PTSD and psychological trauma. This is the injury the defense will try to minimize — and it may be the most significant long-term harm. Being shot multiple times, surviving, and watching someone die beside you is among the most psychologically devastating experiences a human being can endure. Post-traumatic stress disorder after a violent attack is a recognized, diagnosable medical condition with established diagnostic criteria. It includes intrusive memories, nightmares, flashbacks, avoidance of reminders, hypervigilance, exaggerated startle response, sleep disturbance, and difficulty functioning in work and relationships. It can last for years or for life. It is not “being upset.” It is a brain injury — not always visible on a scan, but real, measurable, and compensable. For more on how the science of trauma supports these claims, including the diagnostic framework and the defense’s predictable attacks, our wrongful death and catastrophic injury practice handles this intersection of medicine and law.
The lifetime cost of multiple gunshot wounds — surgical care, ICU stay, rehabilitation, follow-up surgeries, physical therapy, mental health treatment, scar revision, lost wages, and diminished earning capacity — runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for a survivable multi-shot attack, and into the millions for one that causes permanent disability. That is not a settlement demand. It is the arithmetic of medical care, and a life-care planner builds the actual number from the specific injuries, the specific procedures, and the specific future needs — every cost category documented with its year and source.
What This Case Is Worth — An Honest Range
We will not tell you a specific dollar figure for this case, because the facts that determine the value have not been investigated yet. What we can tell you is the range, and why it is so wide.
Low end — approximately $50,000: This assumes no viable property defendant is identified. If the shooting occurred on a private residential lot with no prior crime history, no commercial use, and no insurance coverage that would respond, the civil recovery is confined to the shooter’s likely negligible individual assets and the Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund, which provides modest supplementary assistance with statutory award limits. This is not a recovery that reflects the value of a human life or the cost of multi-shot trauma. It is a floor, not a measure of justice.
High end — up to $8,000,000 or more: This assumes identification of a commercial or multi-family residential property defendant with documented prior criminal incidents at the location, inadequate security measures, and adequate insurance coverage. At this end, the case supports wrongful death damages for the deceased — dependent on his age, earning capacity, and family structure — plus substantial personal injury damages for the surviving victim’s multiple gunshot wounds, ongoing hospitalization, potential permanent disability, scarring, psychological trauma, and future medical needs. Punitive damages may also be available against any premises defendant who had actual knowledge of prior similar criminal incidents and failed to implement reasonable, cost-effective security measures.
The single threshold determination — identifying the exact parcel and its ownership — drives the entire case value. That is why we say the investigation is the case.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
The Insurance Adjuster’s Playbook
If a viable property defendant exists — if the shooting occurred at a commercial establishment or an apartment complex — there is an insurance company behind that property, and that insurance company has already started working. Not against the shooter. Against you.
Here are the plays, in the order they typically run, and here is the counter to each:
Play 1: The “friendly check-in” recorded statement call. Within days of the incident, someone from the property owner’s insurance company — or a third-party adjuster, or a “investigator” — may call the family or the surviving victim. The tone is warm, sympathetic, concerned. The purpose is to get you on the record saying things that will later be used against you: “I’m doing okay,” “He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” “We don’t blame the property.” This call is recorded. Everything you say can and will be quoted in a motion to dismiss or a deposition.
Counter: Do not give a recorded statement to any insurance representative — yours or theirs — without counsel. You are not required to. “I’m not ready to discuss this yet” is a complete sentence. Then call us.
Play 2: The fast settlement check with a release buried under it. A check may arrive quickly — sometimes within weeks — accompanied by a document that, in the fine print, releases the property owner and its insurance company from all further claims related to the shooting. The amount will seem meaningful in the moment — a few thousand dollars, maybe ten or twenty thousand — because the insurance company knows the medical bills are already piling up and the family is under financial pressure. But that check is designed to close the case before the real value is known: before the full extent of the injuries is documented, before the prior crime history of the property is discovered, before a security expert has evaluated the property’s failures.
Counter: Never sign a release from an insurance company without having it reviewed by a lawyer. The release is permanent. Once signed, the case is over — even if the injuries turn out to be far worse than anyone knew.
Play 3: The “you were partly at fault” attack. The insurance company’s lawyers will look for anything that can be used to shift fault to the victims. The time of night. The location. Whether the victims knew the shooter. Whether there was any prior interaction. Every fact is being sifted for the argument that the victims “contributed” to what happened — because in Texas, if the victim is found 51% or more at fault, the recovery is zero.
Counter: This is where the case is won or lost. Being on a street at 3:27 a.m. is not negligence. Knowing the person who shot you is not assumption of risk. The defense will try to make the victim’s choices the story. We make the defendant’s choices the story — the property owner who knew about prior crime and did nothing.
Play 4: The “the criminal act was unforeseeable” defense. The property owner’s insurance company will argue that the shooting was a random, unpredictable act of criminal violence that no security measure could have prevented. This is the defense’s centerpiece argument in any negligent-security case.
Counter: Foreseeability is proven through prior similar incidents. If we can show that the property had a history of late-night disturbances, prior assaults, prior weapons calls — and that the owner knew or should have known — the “unforeseeable” defense collapses. The prior calls for service are the answer. This is why the CAD records have to be requested immediately.
Play 5: The disappearing surveillance footage. The property owner’s own camera system — if it exists — may have captured the shooting. But that footage is on the same overwrite cycle as every other CCTV system. If no one demands it be preserved, it records over itself. The insurance company knows this. The property owner knows this. If the footage showed adequate security and good lighting, the owner would preserve it. If it showed the opposite — a dark parking lot, no guards, a broken gate — the footage has a way of disappearing.
Counter: A preservation/spoliation letter goes out the day we are hired. If the property owner lets the footage die after receiving that letter, the law answers — a judge can tell the jury to assume the lost footage was as bad for the defense as the plaintiff says it was. The leverage begins the moment the letter is on file.
The First 72 Hours: What to Do and What to Refuse
Do:
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Get medical care for the surviving victim and document everything. Even injuries that seem minor in the chaos of the moment — a graze wound, a concussion from falling — need to be documented in the medical record. The full extent of gunshot injuries may not declare itself for days. Every medical encounter creates a record. Those records are the proof.
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Preserve every piece of communication. Text messages, phone logs, social media posts — anything that documents the timeline of the night, the relationships involved, and the aftermath. Do not delete anything.
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Identify the exact location of the shooting. The specific address, parcel, or business name where the shooting occurred. This is the threshold investigation. If you know it, write it down. If you do not, the ECSO incident report will identify it — and that report can be requested.
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Photograph everything you can. If family members were at the scene before it was cleaned — the lighting, the conditions, the signage (or lack of it), the security features (or absence of them). These photographs are evidence.
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Identify witnesses. Anyone who was present, anyone who heard the shots, anyone who saw the suspect arrive or leave. Memory degrades. Witness statements taken within days are far more reliable than those taken months later.
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Request the Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund application. This is a supplementary resource available regardless of the civil case trajectory, and we address it below.
Do not:
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Do not give a recorded statement to any insurance company. Not the property owner’s, not the shooter’s (if there is one), not anyone else’s. “I’m not ready to discuss this” is a complete sentence.
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Do not sign any document from an insurance company without legal review. A release is permanent. A “authorization” form may give the insurer access to your full medical history. A “settlement” may close the case for a fraction of its value.
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Do not post about the incident on social media. The insurance company’s investigators are monitoring. Every post is a potential exhibit. “Feeling blessed to be alive” becomes “she wasn’t really hurt.” A photo at a family event becomes “she’s functioning normally.”
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Do not wait. The evidence clock is running. The two-year statute of limitations is the back wall, but the real deadline — the footage, the witness memories, the CAD records — is measured in days and weeks.
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Do not assume the criminal case will handle everything. It will not. It cannot. The criminal case punishes the shooter. The civil case compensates the family. They are different cases in different courts with different purposes.
How a Case Like This Is Actually Built
Here is the chronological walk — the way a shooting wrongful-death and negligent-security case is actually assembled, from the day you call to the day a number is on the table.
Week one: The preservation letter goes out — to the property owner, to every neighboring property within camera range, to the Ector County Sheriff’s Office, to any contracted security provider. This letter demands that all surveillance footage, dispatch records, incident reports, security logs, key-card data, maintenance records, and prior crime reports be frozen and preserved. The letter is the thing that converts an automatic erase into sanctionable destruction. Without it, the footage dies on its own schedule. With it, the footage is evidence — and letting it die is a choice the property owner now has to make on the record.
Weeks one through four: Open-records requests are filed with ECSO for the complete investigative file — crime scene reports, witness statements, body camera footage, dispatch logs, ballistic analysis. The CAD records — prior calls for service to the property — are requested. Public deed records are pulled to identify the legal owner, any property management company, and any recorded leases or management agreements. The autopsy is requested from the medical examiner. The surviving victim’s medical records are requested with HIPAA authorization.
Months one through three: The investigative file begins to produce. The prior calls for service are analyzed — how many, what type, how recent, how similar. A board-certified security expert is retained to evaluate the property’s security measures against industry standards and opine on whether reasonable measures would have prevented this shooting. The property is inspected — lighting levels are measured, camera coverage is assessed, access controls are evaluated, CPTED principles are applied.
Months three through six: The full medical picture of the surviving victim’s injuries emerges — the surgical records, the imaging, the rehabilitation notes, the psychiatric evaluation, the life-care plan. A forensic economist is retained to project the lifetime cost of medical care, lost earning capacity, and the present value of the future losses. For Quincy Devion Price’s estate, the economist projects the lost lifetime earnings, the lost household services, the lost value of the life itself.
Months six through twelve: Discovery — the formal exchange of information in the lawsuit — begins. Depositions of the property owner, the property manager, the security provider (if any), and the responding law enforcement officers. The defense’s experts are deposed. The security expert’s report is finalized. The life-care plan is finalized. The case value crystallizes.
If the property carries commercial general liability insurance with adequate limits: a Stowers-style settlement demand is calibrated once the liability exposure is clear and the carrier’s duty to accept reasonable settlement within policy limits is engaged. This is a demand that puts the carrier at risk — if the carrier refuses a reasonable settlement within policy limits and a jury later returns a verdict above those limits, the carrier may be liable for the full verdict, not just the policy amount.
If the case does not settle: trial. A jury of twelve people from the community — from Ector County, from the Permian Basin, people who know these streets and these hours — decides what the life was worth, what the injuries were worth, and what the property owner’s failure cost the family.
This is not a fast process. A case built right takes months to investigate and a year or more to resolve. But the alternative — a quick settlement for a fraction of the value, signed before the evidence is preserved, before the injuries are fully documented, before the property’s crime history is known — is the outcome the insurance company is designed to produce. Our job is to make sure that does not happen.
The Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund
Regardless of the civil case trajectory — whether a viable property defendant is identified or not — both the family of Quincy Devion Price and the surviving victim may be eligible for assistance through the Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund, administered through the Office of the Attorney General of Texas.
This fund provides supplementary financial assistance to victims of violent crime and their families. It can help with medical bills, funeral expenses, counseling, lost wages, and other crime-related costs. It does not require a civil lawsuit. It does not require the offender to be convicted. It is available to victims and their families as a matter of right, subject to statutory eligibility requirements and award limits.
The fund is not a substitute for a civil recovery — its awards are modest and capped. But it is a resource that exists now, today, while the civil case is being built, and it should be applied for as soon as possible. The application is available through the OAG’s Crime Victim Services Division, and we can help families complete it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can we sue the property owner even though the shooter is the one who pulled the trigger?
Yes — if the shooting occurred on commercial or multi-family residential property, and if the property owner knew or should have known about prior criminal activity at the location and failed to implement reasonable security measures. This is the negligent-security theory, and it is the primary path to meaningful civil recovery in a shooting case where the shooter is judgment-proof. The threshold question is whether a viable property defendant can be identified — and that investigation starts with identifying the exact parcel where the shooting occurred on W. 57th Street.
How long do we have to file a wrongful death claim in Texas?
The Texas Wrongful Death Act provides a two-year statute of limitations running from the date of death. For Quincy Devion Price, that deadline runs from January 1, 2026. But the real deadline is not the statute of limitations — it is the evidence-preservation clock. Surveillance footage from properties near W. 57th Street is being overwritten on daily cycles. Every day without a preservation letter shrinks the evidentiary record permanently. The two-year deadline is the back wall. The evidence clock is the real urgency.
The criminal case is ongoing — do we have to wait for it to finish before we can pursue a civil claim?
No. The criminal case and the civil case are entirely separate. The civil case can proceed — and should be investigated — while the criminal case is ongoing. In fact, it must be investigated while the criminal case is ongoing, because the evidence the civil case depends on is the same evidence the criminal investigation is generating, and that evidence is on a clock. The criminal case may take a year or more to resolve. Waiting for it means waiting while footage overwrites, while witness memories degrade, and while the property owner’s records are purged on routine retention schedules. The civil investigation runs in parallel, not in sequence.
The shooter was arrested — does that mean he will pay for what he did?
In the criminal justice system, potentially yes — if convicted, he faces prison. In the civil justice system, almost certainly no — because individual criminal defendants are typically judgment-proof. They have no assets, no insurance that covers intentional criminal acts, and no realistic ability to satisfy a civil judgment. A jury could return a verdict against the shooter, but collecting on it is a different matter. This is why the civil investigation looks past the shooter to every other party whose choices contributed to the harm — most importantly, the property owner who may have failed to implement reasonable security against foreseeable criminal acts.
What if the victim was partly at fault — does that bar the claim?
Texas follows a modified comparative negligence rule with a 51% bar. If the victim is found 51% or more at fault, recovery is barred. If the victim is found 50% or less at fault, recovery is reduced by that percentage but not eliminated. The defense will try to push the victim’s fault above 50% — by arguing about the time of night, the location, the relationship with the shooter, or the circumstances of the encounter. Our position is firm: being present on a street at 3:27 a.m. is not negligence. Knowing the person who shot you is not assumption of risk. The defense will try to make the victim’s choices the story. We make the defendant’s choices the story.
What is the Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund and how do we apply?
The Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund, administered through the Office of the Attorney General, provides financial assistance to victims of violent crime and their families. It can help with medical bills, funeral expenses, counseling, and lost wages. It does not require a civil lawsuit or a criminal conviction. It is available regardless of whether a property defendant is identified. The application is available through the OAG’s Crime Victim Services Division. We can help families complete the application. The fund’s awards are modest and subject to statutory limits — it is a supplementary resource, not a substitute for a full civil recovery.
How much is a shooting wrongful death case worth?
The range is wide — from approximately $50,000 on the low end (no viable property defendant identified, recovery limited to Crime Victims’ Compensation and the shooter’s negligible assets) to $8,000,000 or more on the high end (viable commercial or multi-family residential property defendant with documented prior crime history, inadequate security, and adequate insurance coverage). The value depends on the age and earning capacity of the deceased, the nature and severity of the surviving victim’s injuries, the documented foreseeability of the crime, and the adequacy of the property owner’s security measures. The single threshold determination — identifying the parcel and its ownership — drives the entire case value. We cannot give a specific figure until that investigation is complete, and any lawyer who gives you a specific figure before investigating is not telling you the truth.
How do we pay for a lawyer — we are already drowning in medical bills and funeral costs?
We work on contingency. That means we do not get paid unless we win your case. The fee is 33.33% of the recovery before trial and 40% if the case goes to trial. The consultation is free. We advance the costs of the investigation — the records requests, the expert fees, the filing fees — and those costs are repaid from the recovery, not out of your pocket up front. If there is no recovery, you owe us nothing for fees or costs. This is not generosity. It is the structure that allows families who have been devastated by violence to access the same quality of legal representation as the insurance companies on the other side.
If the shooting happened at a private residence, is there any civil recovery?
If the shooting occurred on a purely private residential lot with no commercial use, no prior crime history, and no insurance coverage that would respond to a negligent-security claim, the viable civil recovery narrows significantly. In that scenario, the primary resources are the Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund and whatever assets the shooter may have — which are likely negligible. However, the investigation must be thorough before concluding this. Some properties that appear residential have commercial elements — a home-based business, a rental property, a multi-family use — that may open a different liability path. The investigation determines the answer. Do not assume the answer before the investigation is done.
Why Ralph Manginello and Lupe Peña
We are not a referral mill. We are not a volume practice. We are a trial firm.
Ralph Manginello has been licensed in Texas since November 6, 1998 — 27+ years in courtrooms, including federal court. He is admitted to the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas. He is a member of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and the Houston Bar Association. He was a journalist before he was a lawyer, which means he learned to find the story the facts actually tell — not the story someone wants told. He is the managing partner of this firm, and he leads our trial team with the conviction that every case is built from the evidence outward, not from a desired outcome inward.
Lupe Peña has been licensed in Texas since December 6, 2012 — 13+ years. He is a former insurance-defense attorney. He spent years inside a national defense firm — the rooms where adjusters and their software decided how to deny, delay, and devalue claims exactly like yours. He knows how the claim is valued in the carrier’s system, how the recorded-statement call is engineered, how the IME doctor is selected, and how the surveillance works. He now uses that knowledge for injured clients. He is fluent in Spanish and conducts full client consultations in Spanish without an interpreter. You can read more about Lupe’s background and practice on his page.
We serve families in English and Spanish. Hablamos Español. If your family prays in Spanish, we speak to you in Spanish.
We handle cases across Texas — from the Permian Basin to the Gulf Coast, from Ector County to Harris County. The call is free. The consultation is free. There is no fee unless we win.
If You Are Reading This at 2 A.M.
If you have read this far, it is because someone you love was taken from you on W. 57th Street, or someone you love is in a hospital bed at Medical Center Hospital with multiple gunshot wounds, and you are trying to understand what happens next. You are doing the right thing. The fact that you are reading, learning, asking questions — that is the first act of protection.
Here is what we want you to know before you close this page:
The criminal arrest of the shooter is not the end of the story. It is the beginning of a different story — one where the property owner’s choices, the insurance company’s playbook, and the evidence that is disappearing right now are the things that will decide whether your family receives real compensation or walks away with nothing.
The evidence is dying. The surveillance footage from the properties near W. 57th Street is overwriting itself on a rolling cycle. The witness memories are degrading. The police dispatch records are sitting in a system that will eventually purge them. Every day that passes without a preservation letter is a day the record shrinks. The day you call is the day the clock starts working for you instead of against you.
Your loved one’s presence at that location at that hour is never a defense to the violence committed against him. The insurance company will try to make it one. We will not let them.
You do not have to afford this. The consultation is free. The representation is contingency. We do not get paid unless we win. The costs of the investigation are advanced by the firm and repaid from the recovery — not out of your pocket while you are drowning in bills.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911 — 1-888-288-9911. Free consultation. No fee unless we win. 24/7 live staff — not an answering service, a person.
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. Legal Emergency Lawyers. We are here.
