When a Hotel Door Becomes a Crime Scene: A Stone Mountain Officer’s Family’s Path to Justice
If you are reading this in the days after you lost your son, your fiancé, or your brother to gunfire at a hotel in Stone Mountain, we are sorry for what has happened to your family. Twenty-five years old. Engaged to be married. Less than a year in uniform. A life cut short by a single decision made inside a room the hotel should never have rented in the first place.
We cannot bring him back. We can do the next thing that matters: hold every party with money and a duty to answer for what happened accountable under Georgia law, in a Georgia courtroom, in front of a Georgia jury. This page explains exactly what the law allows, what the hotel owes your family, what the hotel’s insurance company is going to do in the next thirty days to try to pay you as little as possible, and what we do to stop that.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. What follows is general legal information about Georgia wrongful-death and premises-liability law as it applies to hotel shootings, written to help a family like yours understand the road ahead.
Why This Is a Wrongful-Death Case Against the Hotel — Not Just a Criminal Case Against the Shooter
When a police officer is shot in the line of duty, the criminal case against the attacker belongs to the State of Georgia and the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s office. Your family does not control that case, and you do not need a lawyer to participate in it.
But Georgia’s Wrongful Death Act — O.C.G.A. § 51-4-2 — creates a completely separate civil case, brought by the family, against every other party whose conduct contributed to the death. In a hotel shooting, the most important “every other party” is the entity that owns, operates, manages, screens guests for, and profits from the room where the killing took place.
“An action for wrongful death may be brought against any person who unlawfully kills another. The full value of the life of the deceased, as shown by the evidence, shall be the measure of damages.” — O.C.G.A. § 51-4-2.
That single sentence is doing the work of an entire case. The “full value of the life” is not just lost wages — it is the entire value of the person, measured against what the law calls the “estate” and “the beneficiaries.” Georgia is one of the few states where a jury is specifically permitted — even required — to compensate the value of a human life itself, not just the paychecks that stopped and the medical bills that began.
For Officer Tamang, who had no spouse and no children, the wrongful-death beneficiaries are his parents, under Georgia’s hierarchy. His fiancée, as heartbreaking as that loss is, does not automatically have standing to bring the full wrongful-death action under Georgia law as currently written, although she may have related claims we can pursue. We will walk you through who qualifies in your family at the consultation.
For Corporal Reed, the same hotel can face an O.C.G.A. § 51-3-1 premises-liability action for the personal injuries, the pain, the surgeries, the lost wages, and the lasting disability.
These are the civil cases we file. These are the cases that put money in your family’s hands. And these are the cases the hotel and its insurer will fight hardest to keep out of court.
The Two Layers of Corporate Liability We Will Pursue
In a hotel-shooting case of this severity, we look at the corporate defendant through two lenses, and we file under both.
Layer 1 — Premises liability against the property owner and operator. The owner of the hotel building and the entity that operates it day-to-day are the primary defendants. They owed the duty described above. If their screening, their security, their training, or their supervision failed, they are answerable in full to your family under O.C.G.A. § 51-3-1.
Layer 2 — Negligent security by any contracted security provider. Many hotels outsource key elements of property security — lobby staffing, CCTV monitoring, access control, after-hours patrols — to a third-party security contractor. That contractor is a separate defendant under the same Georgia standard. If a contracted security vendor failed to monitor cameras, failed to respond to prior complaints, or failed to flag the activity that night, its own negligence is independently actionable.
The corporate defendants’ first instinct will be to point at each other and say “it was the other one’s job.” That finger-pointing is your leverage, not your obstacle. We make each one prove it performed its role — and hold both responsible to the extent it didn’t.
The Evidence That Exists — and How Fast It Disappears
A hotel-shooting case is won on the records the hotel and its vendors are required to keep — and lost when those records cycle out before a lawyer ever asks for them. Here is what we go after, who has it, and how fast it can legally disappear.
Surveillance video from the hotel. This is the single most important record in the case. Hotel CCTV typically records on a rolling loop, often overwritten in 30 to 90 days depending on the system. Some properties hold footage longer; many do not. The preservation letter goes out the day you call us. Once we serve the hotel with a formal litigation-hold demand, any subsequent destruction becomes spoliation, and a Georgia judge can instruct the jury to assume the missing video would have hurt the hotel.
Reservation and guest-registration records. The property management system (PMS) holds who booked the room, under what name, with what credit card or ID, on what phone number, and whether a third party booked on behalf of the actual occupant. These records exist but are routinely purged on the property’s retention schedule. We demand them on day one.
Front-desk incident reports and shift logs. Hotel staff write up unusual activity — refused housekeeping, cash payment, loitering, complaints from other guests, prior visits by the same person. If the front desk had been flagging this occupant for weeks, the shift logs prove it. If the front desk had never heard of him, that absence of records is itself evidence.
Key-card and access-control logs. Electronic locks record every door opening. They show how often the room was entered, at what hours, and by whose key. In a hotel shooting, the pattern of entries and exits before the shooting is often the spine of the case.
Police call-for-service history at the address. Georgia open-records law gives us access to the agency’s prior CAD (computer-aided dispatch) history for the hotel address. If officers had been called there before, if there had been prior disturbances, if neighbors had complained, that history is what proves the danger was foreseeable — and the hotel knew it.
Prior complaints and internal incident reports. Any complaint about this specific occupant, this specific room, or this pattern of behavior that the hotel received in the days or weeks before the shooting.
The shooter’s own history. The department has confirmed a “lengthy criminal history.” That history is part of the record of who was in that room, and it is part of why the hotel should never have put him in a position to do what he did.
The criminal-case file. The GBI is leading the criminal investigation. The Gwinnett County District Attorney will prosecute. We will monitor the criminal case closely — it generates evidence, testimony, and exhibits that are available to the civil case through Georgia’s standard civil-discovery process, including depositions of officers, first responders, and forensic witnesses.
Send the preservation letter in the first week. We use a written litigation-hold demand that names every category above and requires the hotel, any third-party security vendor, and any related corporate entity to freeze every byte. The day we send that letter is the day the clock stops running on the evidence.
Georgia’s Wrongful-Death Statute of Limitations
Georgia sets a two-year statute of limitations for wrongful-death actions under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33. That clock generally runs from the date of death — here, February 1, 2026 — not from the date of the shooting. There are narrow exceptions for cases where the cause of death was not immediately known, but they do not apply to a shooting death that occurred on the same day as the shooting.
For Cpl. Reed’s personal-injury claim, the two-year clock under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33 also runs from the date of injury, with its own set of tolling doctrines.
The honest warning. Two years sounds like a long time. It is not. The evidence clock is much shorter than the legal clock. Surveillance video cycles out in thirty to ninety days. Witness memories fade. The criminal case progresses, and some of its evidence becomes harder to access as time passes. The single biggest mistake a family can make in this kind of case is to wait six months to “see how the criminal case goes” before calling a lawyer. By then, the preservation letter is too late, the witness statements are contaminated, and the insurance company has had time to build its defense.
We work on contingency. You pay nothing unless we recover for your family.
How We Build the Case — Step by Step
When your family calls us, the work begins immediately.
Week one. We send formal litigation-hold letters to the hotel owner, the hotel operator, any contracted security vendor, and any related corporate entity. We identify and lock down the key-card logs, the PMS records, the CCTV footage, and the shift logs. We contact the Gwinnett County Police Department to identify the lead investigator and request the opportunity to monitor the criminal case. We begin gathering Officer Tamang’s personnel file, training records, performance reviews, and benefit elections — the documents that prove his career trajectory.
Weeks two through twelve. We obtain the hotel’s prior incident reports, the police call-for-service history at the address, and any prior civil claims or regulatory actions against the hotel. We locate and interview hotel staff, neighbors, and any witnesses. We obtain the GBI reports as they become available. We retain the right expert witnesses — a hotel-security standard-of-care expert, a forensic economist to project the lifetime value of a 25-year-old’s career, a forensic pathologist if needed, and a life-care planner if Cpl. Reed’s injuries require one.
Quarter one through trial. We file the civil complaint in the appropriate Georgia court. Discovery proceeds. Depositions are taken under oath from the hotel’s general manager, regional manager, director of security, and any third-party security vendor. Documents are produced. Expert reports are exchanged. Mediation is attempted — Georgia requires it in many cases. If the case does not resolve at a number we can recommend, we try it.
Throughout this process, we carry the legal weight, the investigative weight, and the insurance-company weight. Your family grieves. We work.
What to Do Right Now — In the Next 72 Hours
If your family is grieving the loss of Officer Tamang, or if Cpl. Reed is your husband, your son, your brother, or your close friend, here is what to do today.
Do not give a recorded statement to the hotel’s insurance company. If they have already called, you do not have to call them back. If they send paperwork, do not sign it. Send it to us.
Do not post on social media about the case. Insurance companies monitor public posts. Even a sincere post about your loved one can be misread or taken out of context by a defense attorney.
Do not let the hotel or its representatives inside your home, your car, or your personal records. Anything you say to anyone working for the hotel can find its way into the defense file.
Preserve everything you have. Photos of your loved one, his Gwinnett County Police Department identification, his badge, his uniform, his commendations, his training certificates, the ring he was going to give his fiancée, the last text message he sent home — all of it. We will use it.
Call us. The free consultation is 24/7. We answer the phone. We talk to you about what happened, what the law allows, and what we can do. There is no cost and no obligation. You will know within an hour whether we are the right firm for your family.
Contact Attorney911 now for a free, confidential consultation.
1-888-ATTY-911 · Hablamos Español.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long do I have to file a wrongful-death claim against the hotel in Georgia?
Under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33, you have two years from the date of death to file a wrongful-death action in Georgia. For Officer Tamang, the clock started on February 1, 2026. That said, the practical clock for preserving evidence is far shorter — surveillance video can cycle out in thirty to ninety days. Do not wait.
Who can bring the wrongful-death claim for Officer Tamang if he had no spouse and no children?
Under Georgia law, when there is no surviving spouse or child, the wrongful-death action is brought for the benefit of the next of kin, beginning with the parents. The parents of an unmarried adult with no children are the primary beneficiaries. We will walk you through exactly who qualifies in your family at the consultation.
Can Cpl. Reed file his own civil case against the hotel?
Yes. Cpl. Reed has a separate personal-injury and premises-liability claim under O.C.G.A. § 51-3-1 for his physical injuries, his medical expenses, his lost wages, his pain and suffering, and any permanent disability. He does not have to wait for the criminal case to finish. He has his own two-year clock under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33.
What is the hotel’s defense likely to be?
The hotel will argue the criminal act of the shooter is the sole cause, that the hotel had no knowledge of the danger, and that the shooter’s “lengthy criminal history” is irrelevant to the hotel’s duty. We answer each of these defenses with specific evidence — booking records, prior incident reports, prior police calls, security vendor contracts, and corporate training materials.
Can we sue the security company that the hotel hired?
Yes. If the hotel contracted out security, the security company is a separate defendant with its own duty under Georgia law. We sue both the hotel and the security vendor. The finger-pointing between them becomes our leverage to get a full settlement.
How long does a hotel-shooting civil case take?
Cases like this typically take eighteen months to three years from filing to resolution, depending on discovery, expert work, and whether the case settles or tries. Georgia requires mediation in many cases before trial. We do not settle your case for less than its full value just to move it off our docket — we prepare every case as if it will go to a jury, and that preparation is what makes insurers pay fair numbers.
What does it cost to hire Attorney911 for this kind of case?
Nothing up front. No fee unless we win. We advance all case costs — investigation, expert witnesses, depositions, exhibits, trial preparation — and we recover those costs, plus our fee, only from a settlement or verdict in your family’s favor. The fee is 33.33% before trial and 40% if the case goes through trial. You owe us nothing if we do not recover.
Can we talk to the hotel’s insurance company first?
No. The insurance company is not on your side. The adjuster’s job is to pay your family as little as possible. Let us handle every communication. If they have already called you or sent you paperwork, send it to us before you respond. We will take it from there.
What if the shooter had no money — can we still recover from the hotel?
Yes. The shooter’s finances are not the issue. The hotel carries a commercial general liability policy that is designed to pay exactly this kind of claim. If that policy is insufficient, the hotel’s corporate assets and the assets of any affiliated companies are reachable. We identify every layer of coverage and every corporate pocket before we file.
What happens to the criminal case while the civil case goes on?
The criminal case is prosecuted by the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s office and investigated by the GBI. Your family is not required to wait for the criminal case to resolve before filing the civil case. In fact, filing the civil case early helps preserve evidence and gives your family a head start. We will monitor the criminal case closely and use its evidence in the civil case.
Is Attorney911 the right firm for a Georgia case?
Yes. Our firm has handled cases across the country, including catastrophic-injury and wrongful-death cases against major corporate defendants. We work with local Georgia counsel where required and appear in Georgia courts for our clients. The free consultation will tell you within the first conversation whether we are the right fit for your family. If we are not, we will tell you, and we will point you to someone who is.
I live in Nepal — can I still bring this case?
Yes. We have represented clients across the country and internationally. Wrongful-death beneficiaries do not need to live in Georgia or in the United States to bring a Georgia wrongful-death action. We will arrange consultations and document handling by secure video and encrypted email.
Why should we choose Attorney911 instead of a Georgia firm?
We bring a different perspective to a Georgia case. Our firm’s insider background — including a former insurance-defense attorney who spent years inside the rooms where cases like yours are valued — gives us a structural advantage when negotiating with the hotel’s insurer. We know what the defense sees, what it values, and where it cuts corners. That is why Georgia families call us even though our office is in Houston.
Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. Serving families in Texas and across the country with catastrophic-injury and wrongful-death cases against corporate defendants.
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