Midland, Texas West Wall Street Mass Shooting — Legal Rights of Victims and Families
If you are reading this from the cafeteria at Midland Memorial Hospital, where they set up the family reunification area, or from a kitchen table at two in the morning while someone you love is in surgery — we are talking to you. Not to the internet. To you. One person you know is gone. Eleven more are hurt, some of them badly, and the Emergency Department is still locked down. The suspect is dead. The police have the building. And the thing you may not know, in the fog of this moment, is that the evidence of what went wrong inside that building on West Wall Street is already starting to disappear. The cameras inside that industrial facility record over themselves on a cycle that can be as short as seven days. The access-control logs — the badge swipes and key-card records that show how the shooter got in — sit on a server that can be purged on a routine IT schedule. The police body-worn camera footage, the 911 call recordings, the witness cell-phone videos that people took while the shooting was happening — each of those has its own retention clock, and every one of them is shorter than you think. We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm. We are a Texas trial firm, and the first thing we do in a case like this, the day you call, is send the letters that freeze every piece of that evidence before it legally vanishes. That letter goes out before the funeral, not after the insurance company calls. Because the company that owns or operates that building is already thinking about its defense. You should have someone thinking about your proof.
What Happened on West Wall Street — The Incident As We Know It
On Friday morning, June 12, 2026, an active shooter opened fire inside a building in the 4600 block of West Wall Street in Midland, Texas. One person was killed. Eleven others were injured. Midland Police Department officers responded to reports of gunfire, heard shots coming from inside the building when they arrived, moved to secure the area, and called in armored units and partner agencies. A standoff followed. The suspect was confirmed dead. Midland Memorial Hospital went on lockdown at approximately 8:20 a.m. as a precaution. The Emergency Department remained locked down while a family reunification area was established in the hospital cafeteria. That is what public reporting tells us. What it does not tell you — and what the investigation has not yet answered — is the question that will decide every civil claim arising from this incident: how did the shooter get inside that building, and should the people who controlled that building have seen this coming?
Why an Industrial Building in the Permian Basin Is Different
Midland sits in Midland County, in the heart of the Permian Basin — one of the most active oil and energy production regions in the United States. The 4600 block of West Wall Street falls within Midland’s industrial corridor. This is not a shopping mall or a school. It is a stretch of oilfield service companies, equipment yards, supply warehouses, and industrial parks that exist to support the energy sector that drives this region. Industrial zones in Midland see heavy commercial vehicle traffic, shift-change pedestrian movement, and a workforce population that rises and falls with oil prices and drilling activity. Security standards at industrial facilities across the Permian Basin vary enormously. Some are badge-accessed, camera-covered, fence-secured facilities with controlled entry points and trained security staff. Others are open-yard operations with minimal perimeter security, unlocked doors, and no surveillance at all. The standard of care — what a reasonable property owner or operator should have done to protect the people lawfully inside that building — depends on what this specific facility had, what it knew, and what it should have known. That is a site-specific question, and it is the first one we would answer. Midland County juries understand industrial safety. The people who sit on juries here work in the oilfields, the equipment yards, the supply warehouses. They know what a secure facility looks like and what a vulnerable one looks like. They know that employers and property owners in this corridor are supposed to keep their people safe. When a jury of Midland County residents hears that a building on West Wall Street lacked basic access control or had a history of security problems that were ignored, they understand exactly what that means — because they have walked through those facilities themselves.
Who Can Be Held Accountable — Mapping Every Liable Party
A mass shooting at a commercial building is not a single-defendant case. The shooter is dead, and the shooter’s estate may carry liability for the intentional torts — assault, battery, wrongful death — but estates are often collectibly limited. The real questions are about the institutions that controlled the building and the systems that were supposed to prevent exactly this kind of event. Here is the defendant map as it exists in a case like this, before discovery fills in the names:
The property owner of the 4600 West Wall Street building. Identity to be confirmed through Midland County property records. The property owner owes the highest duty under Texas premises liability law to people lawfully on the premises — the duty to use reasonable care to protect them from foreseeable criminal acts of third parties. The property owner controls the security conditions at the site, or at least controls who does.
The operating entity or tenant occupying the building. The company that possessed and controlled the premises at the time of the incident. This entity had day-to-day responsibility for implementing and maintaining reasonable security measures — access control, surveillance, lockdown protocols, security personnel — for its employees and authorized visitors.
A third-party security contractor, if one was engaged. If a security company was hired to patrol, monitor, or control access to the facility, it voluntarily assumed the duty to protect the premises and its occupants. It must perform that duty with reasonable care. If it provided inadequate staffing, failed to follow its own post orders, or did not respond to warnings, it carries direct liability for that failure.
A property management company, if one was engaged. If a management company was contracted to inspect and maintain the premises, including security infrastructure — doors, locks, fencing, lighting, cameras — it may carry liability for negligent supervision of the security conditions.
The shooter’s employer, if the shooter was an employee of the premises tenant or a related entity. If the shooter had a workplace connection to this building, the employer may be liable for negligent hiring, retention, or supervision — if it knew or should have known of dangerous propensities and failed to act. This includes the question of whether access credentials should have been revoked.
The shooter’s estate. Direct liability for the intentional torts. Collectibility is typically limited, but the claim preserves recourse and supports cross-liability allocation among defendants.
Every one of these is a separate investigation. The property owner is identified through county records. The tenant is identified through lease filings and business registrations. The security contractor is identified through service contracts — if one exists. The shooter’s employment history is identified through wage records, badge logs, and HR files. None of these answers are available from the news. They are available from discovery — but only if the evidence is preserved before it disappears.
Texas Premises Liability — The Duty to Protect Against Foreseeable Violence
Texas premises liability law classifies every person who enters a property by their legal status: invitee, licensee, or trespasser. The highest duty is owed to invitees — people who are on the property for a business purpose, including employees, customers, and authorized visitors. For invitees, Texas law imposes a duty that goes beyond keeping the floor dry. The property owner and the entity in possession of the premises must use reasonable care to protect invitees from foreseeable criminal acts of third parties. That is not a novel theory. It is the settled doctrine of Texas premises liability, and it is the spine of every negligent-security case filed in this state.
The duty has two components that matter in a mass shooting case. First, the defendant must have had notice — actual or constructive — that the danger was foreseeable. Second, the defendant must have failed to take reasonable measures to protect against that foreseeable danger. Notice can come from prior violent incidents at the property, from threats made by the shooter or others, from police calls for service to the address, from security complaints by employees, or from the general crime profile of the surrounding area. The reasonable measures question asks what a careful property owner would have done: access control, surveillance cameras, security personnel, lockdown procedures, controlled entry points, perimeter fencing, adequate lighting. The answer is site-specific — it depends on what this facility was, what it knew, and what it could have done.
If the shooter was an employee or former employee with building access, the duty analysis extends to the employer. OSHA’s General Duty Clause imposes a separate federal obligation:
“Each employer shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees.”
That federal standard — codified at 29 U.S.C. 654(a)(1) — encompasses workplace violence risks when the hazard is foreseeable. It does not create a private cause of action by itself, but it establishes a recognized national standard of care that a Texas jury can consider when evaluating whether the employer or property owner acted reasonably. When an employer knew that an individual posed a danger and did not revoke access, did not warn employees, and did not implement protective measures, the General Duty Clause is part of the argument that the failure was not just negligent — it was a violation of a standard the federal government already wrote down. You can read more about our approach to premises liability and negligent security cases and how we build them.
Foreseeability — The Single Question That Decides the Case
Every negligent-security case rises or falls on foreseeability. If the shooting was entirely random and unforeseeable at a facility with no prior incidents and reasonable baseline security, premises liability recovery will be limited. If discovery reveals prior incidents, ignored threats, disabled or absent security measures, or negligent access control, the case value escalates dramatically — given twelve victims, one wrongful death and eleven injuries, each with independent damages claims.
Here is what we look for, and what every discovery effort in a case like this is designed to surface:
Prior incidents of violence at this address. We subpoena Midland Police Department for all calls for service and incident reports at the 4600 West Wall Street location over the preceding five years. Any prior violent incident — an assault, a threat, a trespassing, a weapons call, a security complaint — establishes notice to the property owner. Prior incidents are the foreseeability engine. They are the proof that the danger was not theoretical. It had already happened, and the owner knew or should have known.
Credible threats that were ignored. If the shooter had made threats before the attack — to coworkers, to supervisors, in writing, online, in person — and those threats were reported to the employer or property owner and no action was taken, that is actual notice. It is the most powerful form of foreseeability evidence a case can have.
Security deficiencies that were known. If employees had complained about broken locks, unsecured doors, non-functioning cameras, inadequate lighting, or the absence of security personnel — and those complaints were documented and ignored — that is constructive notice. It proves the owner knew the security was deficient and chose not to fix it.
The shooter’s access and employment history. If the shooter was a current or former employee, the question becomes whether the employer knew of dangerous propensities and whether access credentials should have been revoked. Employment records, disciplinary history, termination records, and badge-access logs tell this story. An employee who was terminated for threatening behavior but whose badge was never deactivated has been handed the keys to the crime.
The adequacy of security for this type of facility. Even without prior incidents, the standard of care for an industrial facility in the Permian Basin may require certain baseline security measures — controlled access, perimeter security, surveillance — depending on the nature of the operations, the workforce population, and the surrounding area. An ASIS-board-certified security expert establishes what a reasonable facility of this type would have had in place and opines on the deviations.
This is where the case is won or lost. Not in the courtroom — in the documents we pull before anyone ever takes a deposition. The preservation letter that goes out the day you call is the first step in that process.
The Evidence Clock — What Proof Exists and How Fast It Disappears
This is the section that matters most in the first days after a mass shooting. Evidence in a premises liability case does not last forever. It dies on a clock, and the clock is shorter than anyone who has not done this work would believe. Here is what exists, who holds it, and how fast it can legally vanish:
Building surveillance and CCTV footage — interior and exterior cameras. This is the single most important evidence in the case. It shows the shooter’s entry point, movement through the building, timing of the attack, whether access controls functioned, whether security personnel were present and how they responded, and the full sequence of events. Most commercial DVR and NVR systems overwrite on a 7-to-30-day cycle. That means the footage of how the shooter entered this building is erasing itself right now. A preservation demand letter must go out within days — not weeks, not months — or the most decisive proof in the case may be gone forever.
Police body-worn camera and dashcam footage from all responding officers. This documents the scene as officers found it, the standoff, the condition of security measures when police arrived, statements by witnesses and employees on scene, and the response timeline. Law enforcement retention policies vary — this footage can be purged on agency-specific schedules. Preserve through an open-records request or litigation hold within 30 days.
911 call recordings and CAD dispatch records. These establish the timeline of the attack, when the first calls came in, what callers reported about the shooter’s identity and location, and whether any prior calls from the location had indicated security concerns. Typically retained 30 to 90 days under agency policy. Request immediately.
Building access-control records — badge logs, key-card swipes, visitor sign-in logs. These show how the shooter gained entry — whether through authorized credentials, a breached access point, or an unsecured entrance. Electronic access logs may be purged on routine IT schedules. Preserve immediately.
Prior incident reports, security logs, and police calls for service at this address. This is the foreseeability engine. Any prior violent incidents, threats, trespassing, or security complaints at the location establish notice to the property owner and support both liability and punitive damages. Historical records are typically retained but may be archived. Request through formal discovery and public-records requests.
Security company contracts, post orders, staffing rosters, and patrol logs. If a third-party security company was engaged, these establish what security was contracted for versus what was actually delivered, whether staffing levels were adequate, and whether security personnel followed required protocols. Security companies may purge records after contract termination. Preservation demand required immediately.
Employee and witness cell-phone video and photographs taken during the incident. This may capture the shooting, the security response or lack thereof, conditions of entry, and statements by employees about prior concerns. This evidence is independent of building systems that may be controlled by the defendant. Witnesses scatter after mass-casualty events. Identification and preservation demands must go out through social media, police witness lists, and community outreach within days.
Shooter’s employment records, disciplinary history, and access credentials. If the shooter had a workplace connection, these records establish whether the employer knew or should have known of dangerous propensities and whether access should have been revoked. Employment records may be subject to routine destruction policies. Litigation hold required immediately.
Property inspection and maintenance records for doors, locks, fencing, lighting, and security infrastructure. These establish whether the physical security of the building was maintained or whether broken locks, inadequate fencing, failed lighting, or non-functioning access controls contributed to the shooter’s ability to enter and carry out the attack. Maintenance logs are typically retained but should be locked down through a preservation demand.
When a defendant lets required evidence die after receiving notice of a preservation demand, the law has an answer. A court can give the jury an adverse-inference instruction — meaning the jury may assume the lost record was as damaging as the plaintiff says it was. Sanctions are available. In some jurisdictions, a separate claim for the destruction itself may exist. The bar for the harshest sanctions is high, but the leverage begins the moment the preservation letter is on file. The letter is not a formality. It is the first shot in the case.
The Medicine of Gunshot Wounds — What Survivors and Families Face
Gunshot wounds are not like injuries from a fall or a car crash. The mechanism of harm is a projectile traveling at high velocity that tears through tissue, shatters bone, and destroys blood vessels along its path. The injury pattern depends on where the bullet went, what it hit, and whether it passed through or fragmented inside the body. For the eleven people who survived this shooting, the medical reality varies enormously — and the long-term consequences may not be fully known for months or years.
Traumatic brain injury. A gunshot wound to the head can produce catastrophic brain injury through the projectile’s direct destruction of brain tissue and the secondary cascade of swelling, bleeding, and pressure buildup that follows. Even a projectile that does not directly penetrate the brain can cause traumatic brain injury through the shock wave and skull fracture. The hardest truth about brain injury is that a normal CT scan does not mean the brain is fine. In a so-called mild brain injury, the CT comes back clean about 90 percent of the time — not because nothing is wrong, but because the damage is microscopic tearing of nerve fibers that a standard scan was never designed to see. The person who seems fine at the hospital may be the one who forgets a daughter’s name across the dinner table six months later. These injuries are proven with neuropsychological testing, advanced imaging, and the testimony of people who knew the person before. For the families watching this happen, our work on brain injury cases explains how we build the proof.
Spinal cord injury. A gunshot wound to the spine can fracture or dislocate vertebrae and damage the spinal cord itself, producing paralysis below the level of injury. Cervical injuries can mean tetraplegia — loss of function in all four limbs. Thoracic and lumbar injuries produce paraplegia. The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center puts the first-year cost of a high cervical injury at approximately $1.4 million and the lifetime cost for a young adult at more than $6 million — and that figure deliberately excludes every lost paycheck. A spinal cord injury does not end at the wheelchair. It opens the door to a lifetime of infections, pressure sores, blood-pressure crises, and each one is its own emergency and its own bill.
Vascular and orthopedic damage. Gunshot wounds to the extremities frequently damage arteries, veins, nerves, bones, and joints. Vascular injury can threaten the limb if blood flow is not restored within hours. Orthopedic damage may require multiple surgeries, hardware placement, and joint reconstruction. Nerve damage may produce permanent pain, weakness, or loss of function. Some of these injuries end in amputation — and a prosthetic limb is not purchased once. It is bought, worn out, and replaced every three to five years for the rest of a person’s life.
Psychological trauma. Every person who was inside that building — whether physically injured or not — experienced a life-threatening event that satisfies the diagnostic threshold for post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is not a mood or a label. It is a formal medical diagnosis with eight separate diagnostic criteria, and a survivor has to meet every one of them: the event itself, the nightmares that will not stop, the streets and buildings they now avoid, the way their body still jumps at a sound, and symptoms that last more than a month and disrupt their ability to work or be close to anyone. The defense will call it subjective. The medicine says otherwise — validated clinical instruments like the CAPS-5 and PCL-5 produce objective scores, and the diagnostic manual itself recognizes that full symptoms may not appear until six months or more after the event. A person who seems to be coping in the first weeks may be the one who cannot leave the house by month three.
The long arc. Gunshot wounds are not single-event injuries that heal and close. They are the beginning of a medical story that can run for decades — revision surgeries, infection management, chronic pain, prosthetic replacement, psychological treatment, medication regimens, and the slow accumulation of complications that the original injury set in motion. A life-care planner builds the cost of that entire future, year by year, and a forensic economist reduces it to present value. That is how a real number is built — not from a settlement calculator, but from the specific medical reality of one specific person.
Wrongful Death and Survival Claims Under Texas Law
Texas law treats one death as two separate legal claims, and a family that walks through only one door leaves money on the table.
The wrongful death claim belongs to the surviving family — the spouse, the children, and the parents of the person who was killed. Under Chapter 71 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, these beneficiaries may recover for the loss of the decedent’s earning capacity, care, maintenance, support, advice, counsel, and companionship. This is the family’s claim for what they lost — the income that will never come home, the parent who will never be at the graduation, the spouse who will never be there again. The statute of limitations is two years from the date of death.
The survival action belongs to the estate of the person who died. It carries the claim the decedent would have had if they had survived — the conscious pain and suffering they experienced between the injury and death, the medical expenses incurred during that time, and the funeral and burial costs. This is the decedent’s own claim, preserved through the estate, and it is separate from the wrongful death claim. A personal representative — appointed by the court — is the person Texas law authorizes to bring both claims. We handle that appointment.
The two-year statute of limitations is a hard deadline. Miss it and the case is over — no matter how strong the evidence, no matter how clear the liability. But the evidence clock runs faster than the statute of limitations. The deadline to sue is two years. The deadline to save the CCTV footage is days. That gap — between how long you have to file and how quickly the proof disappears — is why acting early matters even when you are not ready to think about a lawsuit.
If the victims were employees of the tenant at the West Wall Street building, there is a fork in the road that many families never see. Workers’ compensation is likely the exclusive remedy against the direct employer — it provides faster, no-fault benefits, but those benefits are capped and they do not include pain and suffering or the full human losses. The third-party claim — the premises liability suit against the property owner, a separate security contractor, or other non-employer entities that controlled the security of the building — is the path to the full measure of compensation, including the losses that workers’ comp never pays. Drawing that fork early, so a family understands both lanes and does not accidentally walk away from the larger claim, is one of the most important things we do. Our wrongful death practice page explains this structure in more detail.
What Compensation Is Available — The Full Damages Picture
A mass shooting with twelve victims — one death and eleven injuries — produces a damages picture that is built person by person, not as a single number. Here is what a complete claim accounts for:
For the deceased victim:
– Lost earning capacity — the income the person would have earned over their working life, projected by a forensic economist using worklife expectancy tables
– Loss of care, maintenance, support, advice, counsel, and companionship — the human losses the family suffers, compensable under the Texas wrongful death statute
– Pre-death conscious pain and suffering — what the decedent endured between the injury and death, recoverable through the survival action
– Medical expenses incurred between injury and death
– Funeral and burial costs
For each injured survivor:
– Emergency and acute medical care — the ER, the surgery, the intensive care unit
– Surgical intervention and hospitalization — which for gunshot wounds can mean multiple operations and weeks of inpatient care
– Rehabilitation — physical therapy, occupational therapy, inpatient rehabilitation
– Future medical needs — revision surgeries, infection management, medication regimens, prosthetic replacement cycles
– Lost wages and diminished earning capacity — the income lost during recovery and the income that will never be earned because of permanent disability
– Physical pain and suffering
– Mental anguish
– Disfigurement and scarring
– PTSD and long-term psychological injury — including the cost of years of trauma-focused therapy
– Loss of household services — the value of the unpaid work the person can no longer do
Punitive damages — available under Texas law upon a showing of gross negligence.
The economic stream — past and future medical care, lost wages, lost earning capacity, the life-care plan in today’s dollars, household services — is provable with records and expert math. The human losses — pain, emotional harm, permanent disfigurement, the life the survivor no longer gets to live, what the family lost — have no receipt but are no less real. A life-care planner builds the cost stream for each catastrophically injured survivor. A forensic economist reduces it to present value. The adjuster’s first offer will be a fraction of that number. Knowing the real number before you ever sit across from the adjuster is the difference between a settlement that covers a lifetime and one that runs out in three years.
Punitive Damages — When Notice Becomes Gross Negligence
Texas allows punitive damages — called exemplary damages in this state — when a plaintiff proves gross negligence. Under Chapter 41 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, gross negligence means the defendant had actual awareness of the extreme risk created by its conduct and proceeded with conscious indifference to that risk. In a negligent-security case, gross negligence is established when discovery shows that the property owner or operator had actual knowledge of prior violent incidents, credible threats, or security deficiencies at the property and consciously disregarded the extreme risk. If employees had complained about broken locks and the owner did nothing. If police had been called to the property for violent incidents and the owner did not upgrade security. If the shooter had made threats and the employer did not revoke access. Each of these is a rung on the exposure ladder — from simple negligence up to the predicate for punitive damages.
Texas imposes a statutory cap on exemplary damages. The general framework caps punitive damages at the greater of $200,000 or two times the economic damages plus an amount equal to noneconomic damages up to $750,000. The economic damages stream — medical bills, lost wages, the life-care plan — is typically not capped. This is one reason why rigorous economic proof matters so much: the uncapped economic damages can dwarf the capped punitive component, and in a case with twelve victims, the economic losses alone can be substantial.
Punitive damages are not a windfall. They are the law’s answer to a defendant who knew the danger was extreme and chose to do nothing. Whether the facts of this case support that showing is a question discovery will answer.
The Insurance Playbook — What the Adjuster Will Try and How to Counter It
If you have been injured or lost someone in this shooting, you will hear from an insurance representative. It may be the property owner’s carrier, the tenant’s carrier, or a third-party administrator. They will sound friendly. They are not your friend. Here are the plays you should expect, and the counter to each one:
Play 1: The “just checking in” recorded statement call. Within days, someone will call to ask how you are doing and whether you would be willing to “just tell us what happened” on a recording. This call is engineered to get you to say things that can be quoted against you later — to minimize your injuries, to accept partial blame, to lock in a version of events before you know the full picture. Counter: Do not give a recorded statement without counsel. You are not required to. The adjuster’s request is not a legal obligation — it is a strategy designed to help the insurance company, not you.
Play 2: The fast settlement check with a release buried in it. A check may arrive quickly, accompanied by paperwork that, if you sign it, releases the property owner and all related parties from any further claim. This check will arrive before the full medical results are in, before the surgeries are done, before the PTSD has manifested, before the life-care plan has been built. It is designed to close the file cheaply while you are vulnerable. Counter: Never sign a release before your medical treatment is complete and you know the full extent of your injuries. A check that arrives in the first weeks is almost always worth a fraction of what the case is actually worth.
Play 3: The “you assumed the risk” or comparative fault argument. The defense may argue that you were in a dangerous area, that you should have known the risk, or that you failed to take reasonable precautions. Texas follows a modified comparative negligence system with a 51 percent bar — if you are 50 percent or less at fault, your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault but is not eliminated. Only if you are more than 50 percent at fault are you barred. In a mass shooting case, comparative fault is rarely a real issue for the victims — but the adjuster will try to pin percentage points on you anyway, because every point is money. Counter: Do not accept any allocation of fault without speaking to a lawyer. Every percentage point the adjuster assigns to you comes straight out of your recovery.
Play 4: Social media surveillance. The insurance company will monitor your social media accounts. A photograph of you smiling at a family event will be presented as proof that you are not really injured. A post about going back to work part-time will be framed as evidence that your earning capacity is unaffected. Counter: Set every social media account to private. Do not post about the incident, your injuries, your medical treatment, or your activities. Tell your family to do the same. The defense is mining for anything that can be taken out of context.
Play 5: The independent medical examination with their doctor. The insurer may demand that you be examined by a doctor of their choosing. This doctor is not your doctor. The examination is designed to produce a report that minimizes your injuries, attributes them to pre-existing conditions, or disputes the need for future treatment. Counter: You have the right to choose your own treating physicians. If an IME is required, it should be managed through counsel, not scheduled by the adjuster.
Lupe Peña spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm before joining this firm. He sat in the rooms where adjusters and their software decided how to deny, delay, and devalue claims. He knows how the reserve is set in the first 48 hours, how the recorded-statement call is scripted, how the surveillance is deployed. He now uses that knowledge for the people the insurance company used to pay him to fight.
How a Mass Shooting Case Is Actually Built — From Preservation to Verdict
Here is how a case like this moves from the day you call to the day a number is on the table. This is not a summary. It is the walk.
Week one. The preservation letter goes out — to the property owner, the tenant, any security contractor, any property management company, and every entity that may hold evidence. The letter demands that all CCTV footage, access-control logs, security contracts, post orders, staffing rosters, patrol logs, incident reports, prior-incident records, maintenance records, employment records, and any other evidence be frozen and preserved. This letter is what converts an automatic erase into sanctionable destruction. Without it, the footage overwrites itself and nobody is accountable. With it, if the evidence disappears, the jury can be told to assume the worst.
Weeks two through four. A open-records request goes to Midland Police Department for all 911 calls, CAD dispatch records, body-worn camera footage, dashcam footage, and incident reports connected to the shooting. A separate request goes to MPD for all calls for service and incident reports at the 4600 West Wall Street address over the preceding five years — the foreseeability engine. If the shooter had a workplace connection, employment records are targeted for preservation. Witness identification begins — through police witness lists, social media outreach, and community contacts.
Months one through three. The lawsuit is filed. Written discovery goes out — interrogatories, requests for production, requests for admission. We demand the full security file: every prior incident report, every employee complaint about security, every maintenance work order for doors, locks, cameras, and lighting, every security assessment or audit ever conducted at the property, the complete access-control log, the security company’s contract and post orders and staffing records. We depose the property owner, the tenant’s operations manager, and any security personnel. We retain an ASIS-board-certified security expert to establish the standard of care for an industrial facility of this type and to opine on the deviations.
Months three through six. We engage a trauma surgeon and a life-care planner for each catastrophically injured victim — to document the injury severity, to project the lifetime medical costs, and to build the cost stream that a forensic economist will later reduce to present value. For the wrongful death victim, we retain a forensic economist to project lost earning capacity using worklife expectancy tables and federal labor data.
Months six through twelve. Expert depositions. The defense’s security expert. The defense’s medical examiner. The defense’s economist. Each deposition is where the defense’s case is tested under oath — where the security expert is confronted with the prior incidents, where the medical examiner is asked about the injuries the defense wants to minimize, where the economist is shown the assumptions that understate the loss.
The Stowers demand. Under Texas’s Stowers doctrine, when the evidence supports a verdict that exceeds the defendant’s insurance policy limits, a properly framed settlement demand creates pressure on the insurer to settle. If the insurer refuses a reasonable demand within policy limits and the verdict at trial exceeds those limits, the insurer may face bad-faith exposure for the excess. This is not a formality — it is a lever, and it works when the evidence is strong enough to make the insurer afraid of the verdict.
Mediation. Mediation should be deferred until key foreseeability evidence is secured but staged before dispositive motions to maximize settlement leverage. The number on the table at mediation is built from all of the above — the preservation, the discovery, the depositions, the expert reports, the life-care plans, the economic projections. It is not a guess. It is an arithmetic problem solved by a team of specialists.
Your First 72 Hours — A Practical Roadmap
Medical care first. If you were injured, your first priority is medical treatment — not just for the obvious wounds but for the injuries that may not show up immediately. Gunshot wounds can produce internal bleeding that is not apparent at the scene. Traumatic brain injury can present with a normal scan and still be a serious, lasting injury. Psychological trauma can take weeks or months to fully manifest. Document everything — keep every medical record, every imaging study, every prescription, every therapy note. The medical record is the foundation of the damages case, and it is built from the moment of injury forward.
Do not sign anything. If an insurance representative, a property owner’s representative, or anyone else asks you to sign a document — a release, a statement, a medical authorization, a settlement agreement — do not sign it. Not without speaking to a lawyer first. A document signed in the first 72 hours, while you are in shock, on pain medication, or simply exhausted, can permanently destroy your legal rights.
Do not give a recorded statement. The adjuster who calls to “check on you” and asks you to describe what happened is building a defense file, not a care plan. Everything you say can and will be used to minimize your claim. Be polite. Take their number. Tell them you will call back after you have spoken with counsel. Then call counsel.
Preserve your own evidence. Do not delete anything from your phone — not photographs, not text messages, not call logs, not social media posts. If you took video or photos during or after the incident, save them, back them up, and do not post them publicly. If you were in contact with anyone during the incident, save those communications. Your phone may contain independent evidence of what happened inside that building.
Do not post on social media. Set your accounts to private. Tell your family to do the same. Do not post about the incident, your injuries, your medical treatment, your location, or your activities. The insurance company is already watching.
Contact a lawyer. The preservation letter that freezes the building’s CCTV footage, the access-control logs, and the security records goes out the day you call. Every day you wait is a day closer to that evidence being legally erased. The call is free. The consultation is confidential. And the letter goes out before you make any decision about filing a lawsuit — so even if you are not ready to talk about a case, your evidence is protected.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sue the property owner if the shooter is dead?
Yes. The shooter’s death does not end the civil liability picture. The property owner, the tenant operating the building, any security contractor, and potentially the shooter’s employer all face separate liability for their own failures — failures that may have allowed the shooter to enter the building, that may have made the attack foreseeable, and that may have failed to protect the people inside. The shooter’s estate may also carry liability, though collectibility is often limited. The real defendants in a mass shooting case are usually the institutions that controlled the building, not the shooter.
How long do I have to file a lawsuit?
Under Texas law, the statute of limitations for wrongful death and survival actions is generally two years from the date of death or injury, under Chapter 71 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. But the evidence clock runs much faster than the statute of limitations. The CCTV footage from inside the building may be gone in 7 to 30 days. The 911 call recordings may be purged in 30 to 90 days. You may have two years to sue, but you have days to save the proof. That is why we send the preservation letter the day you call — long before any lawsuit is filed.
What if my loved one was an employee of the company in that building?
There are two lanes, and you need to know about both. Workers’ compensation is likely the exclusive remedy against the direct employer — it provides faster, no-fault benefits, but those benefits are capped and do not include pain and suffering or the full human losses. The third-party claim — the premises liability suit against the property owner, a separate security contractor, or other non-employer entities that controlled the security of the building — is the path to the full measure of compensation. Many families never learn about the third-party lane and walk away with only a comp check. Drawing that fork early is one of the most important things a lawyer does in a workplace shooting case. Our workplace accident practice page covers this structure.
What is the case worth?
The honest answer is that it depends entirely on what discovery reveals about foreseeability. The range is exceptionally wide. If the shooting was entirely random and unforeseeable at a facility with no prior incidents and reasonable baseline security, premises liability recovery will be limited. If discovery reveals prior incidents, ignored threats, disabled or absent security measures, or negligent access control, the case value escalates dramatically — because twelve victims, each with independent damages claims, and the potential for gross negligence and punitive damages, produce a very different number. We do not promise a dollar figure before we have seen the evidence. What we do is build the real number — from the medical records, the life-care plan, the economic projection, and the liability evidence — so that when the time comes, the number is bulletproof. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
Will I have to go to court?
Most personal injury cases settle before trial. But a case that is built to settle is also a case that is built to try — and the strength of the evidence is what drives the settlement. If the insurance company knows the evidence is locked down, the experts are retained, and the lawyer is prepared to take the case to a jury, they are more likely to offer a fair number. If they sense the evidence is thin or the lawyer is not prepared, they will lowball. We build every case as if it is going to trial, and that posture is often what produces a strong settlement.
What if I was not physically injured but I was in the building during the shooting?
You may still have a claim. PTSD is a recognized, diagnosable injury with specific clinical criteria. If you were present during the shooting and you are experiencing symptoms — nightmares, flashbacks, avoidance, hypervigilance, sleep disruption, anxiety — those are compensable injuries. The law does not require a bullet wound to recognize harm. A person who survived the shooting but cannot return to work, cannot enter a building, or cannot sleep without medication has suffered a real and compensable loss.
Should I talk to the insurance company?
No. Not without speaking to a lawyer first. The insurance adjuster who calls you is a professional negotiator whose job is to minimize the amount the company pays. Everything you say can be used against you. The adjuster may seem friendly and concerned — and may genuinely feel sympathy — but the call is being documented and the documentation is building a defense file. Take their number. Tell them you will call back. Then call us.
How much does a lawyer cost?
We work on contingency. That means we do not get paid unless we win your case. The fee is 33.33 percent of the recovery before trial and 40 percent if the case goes to trial. The consultation is free. We advance the costs of the investigation — the preservation letters, the records requests, the expert fees — and those costs are repaid from the recovery. If there is no recovery, you do not owe us a fee. You do not owe us for the costs we advanced. We take the risk. You focus on healing.
Why Attorney911 — Ralph Manginello and Lupe Peña
Ralph P. Manginello is the managing partner of our firm. He has been licensed in Texas since November 6, 1998 — 27 years of trial practice, including in federal court. He is admitted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. He was a journalist before he was a lawyer, which means he learned to find the story in the documents before he learned to argue it in the courtroom. He is a member of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and the Houston Bar Association. He is the lead counsel in the active hazing wrongful-death lawsuit against Pi Kappa Phi and the University of Houston, filed in Harris County in November 2025. He does not take every case. He takes the cases he believes in, and he works them until the evidence is frozen, the experts are lined up, and the number is real. You can read more about Ralph’s background and credentials here.
Lupe Peña is an associate attorney at our firm. He has been licensed in Texas since December 6, 2012 — 13 years of practice, also admitted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Before joining this firm, Lupe spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm. He sat in the rooms where adjusters and their valuation software decided how to deny, delay, and devalue claims. He knows how the reserve is set in the first 48 hours, how the recorded-statement call is engineered, how surveillance is deployed, and how the IME doctor is selected. He now uses that knowledge for the people the insurance company used to pay him to fight. Lupe is fluent in Spanish and conducts full client consultations in Spanish without an interpreter. He is a third-generation Texan with family roots to the King Ranch, born and raised in Sugar Land. You can read more about Lupe’s background and the insider advantage here.
We have recovered more than $50 million for our clients over more than 24 years in practice. Those results include a $5 million brain-injury settlement, a $3.8 million amputation settlement, a $2.5 million truck-crash recovery, and a $2 million maritime back-injury settlement. We are not the firm that files a complaint and waits. We are the firm that sends the preservation letter the day you call, retains the experts the month you hire us, and builds the case from the evidence outward. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes — but the process that produced those results is the process we bring to every case. Our firm has also written about mass shooting litigation and the legal rights of victims and families in the context of the Route 91 Harvest Festival case — a resource that explains the legal framework in more detail.
Contact Us — Free Consultation, 24/7
The call is free. The consultation is confidential. And there is no fee unless we win your case. We have 24/7 live staff — not an answering service, but people who can take your call at any hour and start the process. The preservation letter goes out the day you call.
1-888-ATTY-911 (1-888-288-9911)
We serve shooting victims and their families across Texas. Our offices are in Houston and Austin, and we take cases statewide. We are a Texas trial firm, licensed and practicing in Texas courts.
Hablamos Español. Lupe Peña conducts full consultations in Spanish without an interpreter. If your family prays in Spanish, we will speak to you in Spanish.
This page is legal information, not legal advice. Every case is different. The specific facts of what happened at the 4600 block of West Wall Street in Midland on June 12, 2026, are still under investigation by law enforcement. What we have written here is the framework — the law, the evidence, the process, the medicine, the money — so that you understand the terrain before you make any decisions. The decisions are yours. Our job is to carry the legal burden so you can focus on healing and mourning. Call us when you are ready. The evidence is waiting, and the clock is running.