Midland Shooting Deaths at CR 1140 & Highway 80: Legal Rights of Victims’ Families
Three people are dead after a shooting in the area of North County Road 1140 and East Highway 80 in Midland. If your family is one of the three — or you are reading this because someone you love was there — you are not on this page by accident. You are here because the criminal investigation will not answer the only question that matters to the people left behind: who allowed this to happen, and who can be made to answer for it in dollars that actually mean something.
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. We are a Texas trial firm that handles catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases, and we are writing this page for one reason: so that the families searching for answers at two in the morning find something more than a news headline and a dead end. What follows is everything we know about how a shooting like this becomes a case in Midland County — the law, the evidence that is already disappearing, the defendants who may hide behind the shooter, and the money that may be available if the right theory is pursued before the proof is gone.
This page is legal information, not legal advice. Everything here is general to Texas law and to shooting cases in the Permian Basin. For your specific situation, the call is free: 1-888-ATTY-911, 24 hours a day, and you speak to a live person, not an answering service. We do not get paid unless we win your case. And we serve families fully in Spanish — Hablamos Español.
What Happened at CR 1140 and Highway 80 — and Why the Location Controls Everything
Three people were killed in a shooting near the intersection of North County Road 1140 and East Highway 80 in Midland, Texas. Midland Police Department responded to the scene. That is what public reporting confirms. What public reporting has not yet confirmed — and what will determine the entire legal landscape for three grieving families — is the precise nature of the location where this shooting occurred.
North County Road 1140 intersects East Highway 80 in an area of eastern Midland County that is defined by the Permian Basin energy economy. Along this corridor you find oilfield service businesses, commercial establishments, industrial yards, and scattered residential properties — a mix that has grown denser and busier as the oil and gas boom drove population growth, transient workforce influx, and increased commercial density along the Highway 80 and Business I-20 corridors that run parallel through the Midland metro area. That boom has also elevated crime rates and police call volumes in corridors that were previously rural and lightly patrolled. That fact is not an editorial observation — it is a legal data point that matters directly to whether a property owner in this area should have seen this danger coming.
Here is why the location type is the single most important variable in this case:
If the shooting occurred on commercial property — a business parking lot, a commercial establishment, a retail site, an industrial yard open to workers or visitors — then a property owner, a business operator, a management company, and potentially a security contractor may each owe a duty of care to the people who were there. That duty, under Texas law, extends to protecting invitees from foreseeable third-party criminal acts. The failure to provide adequate security — lighting, surveillance, access control, on-site personnel — is a negligent security claim, and it is the theory that can turn a case with no recovery into a case worth millions.
If the shooting occurred on a public roadway or on private residential property with no commercial nexus, the defendant stack shrinks. The shooter’s own criminal and civil liability remains, but the shooter is typically the person least able to pay. Civil recovery in that scenario is limited to the perpetrator’s individual assets, crime victims’ compensation funds, and any applicable insurance — and the reality is that those sources are usually thin.
The difference between those two scenarios is the difference between a $1.5 million case and a $25 million case. That is not a guess or a promise — it is the structural reality of how Texas wrongful death law interacts with premises liability when three lives are lost. Identifying which scenario applies to this incident is the first and most urgent task, because the evidence that answers the question is already disappearing.
Texas Wrongful Death Law: Who Can File and What Damages Exist
Texas governs this incident under its wrongful death and survival statutes, which provide separate and cumulative remedies for the estates and statutory beneficiaries of the three people who were killed. Those are two distinct legal claims, and a family that walks through only one door leaves money on the table.
The Wrongful Death Claim — For the Family
Under Texas wrongful death doctrine, surviving spouses, children, and parents of each of the three decedents may pursue independent claims. That word — “independent” — is critical. Each qualifying beneficiary holds their own claim. A spouse has a claim. Each child has a claim. Each parent has a claim. They are not filing one lawsuit for the family; they are each filing their own claim for what they personally lost.
What they lost, under Texas law, includes:
- Lost earning capacity — the income the decedent would have earned over their remaining work-life expectancy, projected forward and reduced to present value. In the Permian Basin, where oilfield wages run high, this figure can be substantial if any of the three decedents worked in the energy sector.
- Lost counsel, maintenance, support, services, and advice — the practical, daily contributions the decedent made to the household and family that now have to be replaced or go without.
- Lost companionship, society, and emotional support — the human relationship that was taken. Texas allows compensation for this. It is not a “bonus” category; it is a core element of what a wrongful death case is about.
- Mental anguish — the grief itself. Texas recognizes this as a distinct, compensable loss.
The Survival Claim — For the Estate
Separate from the wrongful death claim, each decedent’s estate may recover damages that accrued from the moment of injury until death. This is the survival action, and it captures:
- Conscious pain and suffering — whatever the decedent experienced between the shooting and death. The survival interval in gunshot fatalities may range from seconds to hours depending on wound location and mechanism. A forensic pathologist will be essential to establish this interval. If death was not instantaneous, the conscious suffering — however brief — is compensable.
- Medical expenses incurred between injury and death.
- Funeral and burial costs.
The survival claim belongs to the estate, not to the individual beneficiaries. It is administered through a personal representative — the person Texas law authorizes to bring the estate’s case. We handle that appointment as part of the work.
Texas applies the Timberwalk foreseeability framework — examining proximity, recency, similarity, and publicity of prior crimes at or near the location — to determine whether the owner should have implemented reasonable security measures such as lighting, surveillance, access control, or on-site security personnel.
That framework — proximity, recency, similarity, and publicity — is the four-part test that decides whether a property owner in Midland County can be held responsible for a shooting on its premises. It is the heart of any negligent security case, and it is where the battle will be won or lost.
Negligent Security and Premises Liability: When Property Owners Answer for Shootings
If the shooting at CR 1140 and Highway 80 occurred on commercial property, the owner or operator owes invitees a duty to protect against foreseeable third-party criminal acts. That is not a radical legal theory — it is established Texas premises liability doctrine, and it is the mechanism by which a grieving family reaches a defendant with assets and insurance instead of being left to collect from a shooter who likely has neither.
The duty is not absolute. Texas does not make a property owner an insurer of every visitor’s safety against all possible crime. The duty is to take reasonable measures against foreseeable dangers. The fight is always over two questions: Was the danger foreseeable? And if it was, did the owner do enough?
The Timberwalk Foreseeability Framework
The Timberwalk foreseeability framework examines four factors to determine whether a property owner knew or should have known of the danger of criminal activity at their location:
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Proximity — How close were prior criminal incidents to the property? Crime at the same address is the strongest evidence. Crime on an adjacent property or in the immediate neighborhood is also relevant. The closer the prior incidents, the stronger the foreseeability.
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Recency — How recently did prior criminal incidents occur? A string of police calls in the past six months is far more powerful than a single incident five years ago. The recency of the pattern shows the danger was live and ongoing.
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Similarity — How similar were the prior crimes to the shooting? Prior violent crimes — assaults, robberies, prior shootings, weapons calls — are the most relevant. Prior property crimes (graffiti, shoplifting) are weaker but still contribute to the overall picture.
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Publicity — How widely known was the danger? Had the property been the subject of police attention, community complaints, news coverage, or its own internal incident reports? The more the owner was on notice, the harder it is to claim surprise.
In the eastern Midland County corridor, where the Permian Basin energy boom has elevated crime rates and police call volumes in previously rural commercial areas, the foreseeability analysis is directly relevant. If the property where this shooting occurred had a history of police calls for service — for assaults, drug activity, weapons, disturbances — the owner may have been on notice that violence was a foreseeable risk, and a jury could find that reasonable security measures were not just a good idea but a legal duty.
What “Reasonable Security” Means
Reasonable security is not a single formula. It depends on the property type, the location, the known crime history, and what measures were feasible. A board-certified security consultant will testify about industry standards for the specific property type and what should have been implemented. Common measures include:
- Adequate lighting — Dark parking lots and walkways are the single most common security deficiency. Lighting is cheap, effective, and routinely skipped.
- Surveillance cameras — Not just cameras that record, but cameras positioned to cover entry points, parking areas, and blind spots — and a policy for monitoring and retention.
- Access control — Gated entries, keyed access, controlled entry points for commercial properties in high-crime areas.
- On-site security personnel — Security guards, patrols, or off-duty law enforcement, depending on the level of foreseeable risk.
- Maintenance of existing security — Working locks, functional cameras, repaired lighting. A security system that is installed and then left to decay is worse than none at all, because it creates a false sense of safety.
The absence of any of these measures, at a property with a documented history of criminal activity, is the foundation of a negligent security claim — and, if the owner’s indifference to a known danger can be proven, it is the foundation for punitive damages under Texas law.
The Defendant Stack: Who Might Be Responsible for the Midland Shooting
A shooting case is rarely a single-defendant case. The shooter is the direct cause, but the shooter is often the person least able to pay. The real question is who else had a duty to prevent this and failed. Depending on where the shooting at CR 1140 and Highway 80 occurred, the potential defendants include:
The Shooter/Perpetrator — Direct criminal and civil liability for the intentional assault and battery that resulted in three deaths. Civil recovery is limited by the perpetrator’s individual assets and collectibility. In most cases, the shooter’s assets are insufficient to meaningfully compensate three families. This defendant is necessary but rarely sufficient.
The Property Owner/Commercial Establishment — If the shooting occurred on business premises, the property owner faces premises liability for failure to provide adequate security against foreseeable third-party criminal acts. This is measured by prior crime at the location and industry security standards. This is typically the deepest-pocket defendant and the one whose insurance coverage may actually be adequate to compensate three families for catastrophic losses.
The Property Management Company — If a management company exercises operational control over the property, it may have its own duty to maintain safe premises — including making security decisions, maintaining lighting and access control, and responding to known dangers. The management company’s contractual duty to the owner does not excuse its duty to the people on the property.
Third-Party Security Contractors — If a security company was employed at the location, it may face liability for negligent performance of its contracted duties — inadequate patrol coverage, failure to follow its own security protocols, failure to report or respond to dangerous conditions. A security company that was hired but did not do the job is its own defendant.
The Business Operator/Tenant — The tenant operating a business at the location has its own independent duty to maintain safe premises for business invitees. This liability may exist separate from the property owner’s, particularly if the tenant controlled the security-relevant conditions — the parking lot, the entry points, the lighting, the hours of operation.
The defendant stack matters because each defendant may carry different insurance coverage, and the total recovery is multiplied by the number of viable defendants. Three wrongful death and survival claims against a single shooter with no assets is a tragedy. Three wrongful death and survival claims against a commercial property owner with a general liability policy, an umbrella policy, and documented prior incidents is a case that can actually provide for three families.
Damages: What Three Wrongful Deaths Are Worth Under Texas Law
Three wrongful deaths generate catastrophic damages exposure across multiple estates and beneficiary groups. The total recovery is potentially multiplied by the number of qualifying statutory beneficiaries for each decedent. Here is how the number is built.
Economic Damages
Economic damages are objectively calculable money losses:
- Lost earning capacity — Projected over each decedent’s remaining work-life expectancy. In the Permian Basin’s high-wage environment, if any of the three decedents were employed in the oil and gas sector, this figure alone can reach into the millions. A forensic economist builds this number from wage records, industry data, and work-life expectancy tables — not from a guess.
- Funeral and burial expenses — Three sets of funeral costs, burial or cremation, and related expenses.
- Medical expenses incurred between injury and death — Any emergency treatment, transport, or medical intervention before death.
- Loss of household services — The economic value of the unpaid work each decedent did at home: childcare, cooking, repairs, driving, household management. Valued by the replacement-cost method using federal time-use data and market replacement wages.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages encompass the human losses that no receipt can measure:
- Mental anguish — The grief itself, for each statutory beneficiary. Each qualifying spouse, child, and parent holds an independent claim.
- Loss of companionship, society, counsel, and emotional support — The relationship that was taken from each beneficiary.
- Loss of inheritance — What the decedent would have accumulated and passed to heirs had they lived their normal life expectancy.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages — called “exemplary damages” in Texas — may be available if a commercial property owner’s conscious indifference to a known dangerous condition is established. Texas governs exemplary damages under Chapter 41 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, which limits punitive damages based on a formula tied to economic and non-economic damages. The formula matters, but the threshold matters more: to recover punitive damages, the plaintiff must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with malice or gross negligence — actual awareness of the danger and conscious indifference to the safety of others.
Evidence of prior similar criminal incidents at the property, combined with the failure to implement basic, cost-effective security measures, is the foundation for a punitive damages argument. A property owner who knew that assaults and drug activity were occurring on its premises, who did nothing, and where someone was then shot and killed — that is the fact pattern that moves a case from compensatory to punitive territory.
The Survival Component
Each decedent’s estate may recover for conscious pain and suffering experienced between the shooting and death. In fatal gunshot cases, the survival interval may be brief — but it is medically significant. A forensic pathologist will examine the wound location, the mechanism of injury, and the timeline to determine whether there was a period of conscious suffering. Even a brief interval of awareness — knowing what was happening, feeling the wound, understanding the danger — is compensable under Texas survival law.
Case Value Range
The range is intentionally wide because the critical liability variable — whether the shooting occurred on commercial property with a viable negligent security claim — is not yet confirmed from accessible reporting:
- Low end: approximately $1.5 million — If this is a purely criminal act on a public roadway or private residential property with no commercial defendant, recovery is limited to the shooter’s individual assets (likely minimal), crime victims’ compensation funds, and any applicable insurance. This is the floor, and it is inadequate.
- High end: $25 million or more — If the shooting occurred at a commercial establishment with documented prior criminal incidents and inadequate security, three wrongful death and survival claims against a deep-pocket property owner, national franchise, or commercial tenant could each justify seven-figure to eight-figure recoveries. The mass-casualty multiplier effect — three deaths, multiple beneficiaries per death, Permian Basin earning capacity — is what drives this number into the range where it can actually matter to three families.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. The number in any specific case depends on the evidence, the defendants identified, the insurance coverage available, and the venue. What we can tell you is that the difference between the low end and the high end is not the severity of the loss — three people are dead in both scenarios — it is the legal theory and the defendant stack. Getting that right is the work.
The Evidence Clock: What Exists and How Fast It Disappears
This is the section that should make every family reading this page pick up the phone today, not next week. The proof that decides whether this is a $1.5 million case or a $25 million case is disappearing on a clock — and the clock is already running.
Scene Surveillance Footage
What it captures: The sequence of events, the identity and path of the shooter, the conditions at the location including lighting and access points, and the presence or absence of security measures.
Who holds it: Nearby businesses, traffic cameras, any dash cameras from passing vehicles.
How fast it dies: Most commercial CCTV systems overwrite on a 7-to-30-day cycle. Traffic camera footage may be purged within 72 hours. The immediate canvassing of all businesses within visual range of the incident scene is the most time-critical step in the entire investigation. Every day that passes, another camera’s loop may have erased the only record of what happened and what the property looked like.
Midland Police Department Call-for-Service Records
What it captures: The history of police responses to the location and surrounding properties — the cornerstone of the foreseeability analysis. This is the record that proves whether the property owner was on notice of criminal activity through prior police responses, incident reports, and complaints at the location.
Who holds it: Midland Police Department, obtainable through formal public information requests under the Texas Public Information Act.
How fast it dies: MPD records are retained, but formal public information requests should be filed immediately to obtain and preserve these records. Delays risk loss of older records and administrative obstacles. The Texas Public Information Act request for calls for service at the location over the preceding five years is one of the first documents that should go out the door.
Property Records, Lease Agreements, and Corporate Filings
What it captures: The identity of the legal owner, operator, tenant, and any management company responsible for security decisions at the property — the corporate structure and insurance coverage options.
Who holds it: County property records, Secretary of State business filings, lease agreements held by the parties.
How fast it dies: Public records are relatively stable, but they should be obtained promptly before any post-incident transfer, dissolution, or reorganization of owning entities. A property owner who learns they may face liability has every incentive to restructure.
Security Audit Records, Lighting Inspection Reports, and Maintenance Logs
What it captures: Whether the property owner had actual or constructive knowledge of security deficiencies and whether cost-effective remedies were available but not implemented — the foundation for punitive damages.
Who holds it: The property owner, management company, or security contractor.
How fast it dies: These records may be destroyed, altered, or “lost” post-incident. Litigation hold letters should be issued immediately to all potential commercial defendants to preserve these documents. The moment the letter is on file, the legal consequences of destroying those records shift dramatically.
Ballistics Evidence, Autopsy Reports, and Crime Scene Reconstruction Data
What it captures: Specific causation — caliber, trajectory, range, number of shots, and the survival interval between injury and death for survival damages. Toxicology may reveal contributory factors.
Who holds it: Law enforcement agencies conducting the criminal investigation.
How fast it dies: Collected by law enforcement during the criminal investigation, this evidence must be obtained through civil discovery or cooperation with the prosecutor’s office. Autopsy reports may take 60 to 90 days for full completion. The evidence itself is generally preserved by law enforcement, but access requires the right legal mechanism.
Witness Statements and Cell Phone Footage
What it captures: Corroboration of the official account, identification of the shooter, conditions at the scene, and potentially the shooter’s behavior and the victims’ positions immediately before and during the incident.
Who holds it: Bystanders, witnesses, people who were nearby.
How fast it dies: Witness memories fade rapidly. In the transient Permian Basin workforce, people relocate frequently as oilfield projects shift. Social media should be monitored for posted footage. Canvassing for witnesses should occur within 72 hours — every day that passes, another witness may have moved on to the next job site.
The preservation letter — the written demand that a property owner, a business, a security company, and any other potential defendant save every piece of evidence — is the first thing we send. Not after we know who is responsible. Before. The letter goes out the day you call, because the evidence is on a timer, and the timer started the moment the first shot was fired.
The Insurance-Adjuster Playbook: What to Watch For
Lupe Peña spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm — the rooms where claims like yours are priced, devalued, and denied. He sat across the table from the adjusters and their software, and he knows the plays because he used to run them. Now he uses that knowledge for injured clients. Here is what the insurance industry does in the hours and days after a mass-casualty shooting, and what the counter is to each play.
Play 1: The “Criminal Act, Not Our Problem” Denial
The property owner’s insurer will issue a reservation-of-rights letter or an outright denial stating that the shooting was an independent criminal act by a third party and that the property owner is not responsible for the criminal conduct of others. This is the first wall. The counter is the Timberwalk foreseeability framework: if the danger was foreseeable based on prior similar incidents at the location, the property owner had a duty to take reasonable security measures, and the failure to do so is a proximate cause of the harm — not the shooter’s conduct alone. The criminal act does not absolve a property owner who created or tolerated the conditions that made it foreseeable.
Play 2: The Quick, Low Settlement Offer to One Family
When three families are grieving, the insurer knows that at least one may be desperate enough to accept a fast check. A low settlement with one family can be used to anchor the value of the remaining claims and to create a narrative that the “case is settling for X.” The counter is to understand that each family’s claim is independent, each has its own damages profile, and a quick settlement before the evidence is preserved and the defendants are identified is almost always a fraction of what the case is worth. No family should accept a check before the preservation letters are out, the police call-for-service records are obtained, and the corporate structure of the property owner is mapped.
Play 3: The “No Prior Similar Incidents” Argument
The defense will argue that the property owner had no notice of a danger of this type — no prior shootings, no prior violent crimes of a similar nature. The counter is the full Timberwalk analysis: prior calls for service for assaults, drug activity, weapons, disturbances, or any violent or threatening behavior at or near the property are relevant to foreseeability. The standard is not “identical prior crimes” — it is whether the totality of prior criminal activity gave the owner notice that violence was a foreseeable risk. A property with a history of drug activity and fights has notice that violence is possible, even if it has never had a prior shooting.
Play 4: The Surveillance and Social Media Watch
The insurance company will assign investigators to monitor the social media accounts of surviving family members, looking for posts that can be taken out of context — a photo of a family gathering, a vacation, a smile at a funeral — and used to argue that the grief is not as severe as claimed. The counter is simple: assume you are being watched from the moment the incident happens. Do not post about the case, the shooting, the loss, or your daily life. Do not discuss the case with anyone except your lawyer. Do not sign anything from any insurance company without your lawyer reviewing it.
Play 5: The Recorded Statement Trap
Someone friendly — possibly an insurance adjuster, possibly an investigator for the property owner — may contact a family member and ask them to “just tell us what happened” on a recording. That recording is engineered to be quoted against you. Every word is an opportunity for the defense to narrow the case, pin down a version of events before the full investigation is complete, or find a statement that can be characterized as inconsistent. The counter is absolute: no statements to any insurance representative, investigator, or stranger without your lawyer present. Not one.
The First 72 Hours: What to Do and Not Do
If your family is affected by the Midland shooting at CR 1140 and Highway 80, here is the practical roadmap for the first hours and days. This is not legal advice for your specific situation — it is the general framework that protects families in the immediate aftermath of a mass-casualty shooting.
Do:
- Call us at 1-888-ATTY-911. The call is free. The consultation is free. We do not get paid unless we win. The call is the trigger for every preservation letter, every records request, and every investigative step that follows. The sooner the call, the more evidence we can freeze.
- Preserve everything you have. Any photos, videos, text messages, phone records, or social media posts from or about the victim on the day of the shooting — save them, back them up, and do not delete anything.
- Get the medical and autopsy records started. If you are the next of kin, you have a right to these records. We can help you obtain them. The autopsy report will take 60 to 90 days, but the request should go in now.
- Identify witnesses. If you know anyone who was near the scene, get their contact information immediately. The transient Permian Basin workforce means witnesses may be gone in weeks.
- Document the location. If you can safely do so, photograph the area where the shooting occurred — lighting conditions, signage, security cameras (or their absence), access points. Conditions can change quickly, and the property owner may alter the site.
Do Not:
- Do not speak to the insurance company. Not for the property owner, not for any business, not for the shooter. Not a recorded statement, not a “casual conversation,” not a “quick question.” Nothing.
- Do not sign anything. No release, no authorization, no settlement offer, no document from any insurance company or investigator. Nothing without a lawyer reading it first.
- Do not post on social media. Not about the case, not about the shooting, not about your grief, not about your daily life. Assume the insurance company is watching.
- Do not wait. The statute of limitations for wrongful death and survival actions in Texas is generally two years from the date of death. But the evidence does not last two years — it lasts days and weeks. The deadline to sue is generous. The deadline to preserve proof is not.
How to Choose a Wrongful Death Attorney for a Midland Shooting Case
Not every lawyer who handles personal injury cases is equipped to handle a mass-casualty negligent security and wrongful death case. Here is what to look for and what to ask.
Experience with negligent security and premises liability. A shooting case is not a car wreck. It requires knowledge of the Timberwalk foreseeability framework, the duty owed by a property owner to invitees, and the security-industry standards that measure what “reasonable” means at a specific property type. Our firm handles premises liability cases and understands how to build the foreseeability record that makes or breaks these claims.
Experience with wrongful death and survival actions. The two claims are separate and cumulative. A lawyer who handles only one is leaving half the case on the table. Wrongful death representation requires knowledge of the statutory beneficiary structure, the damages categories, the personal-representative appointment process, and the forensic economics of projecting lost earning capacity.
Experience with mass-casualty litigation. Three deaths, multiple beneficiaries, multiple defendants, and potentially multiple insurance towers is a complex case. Mass-shooting wrongful death litigation requires the ability to manage a multi-party, multi-estate case while coordinating with a parallel criminal investigation.
An insider’s knowledge of the insurance industry. The defense playbook is predictable — but only if you have seen it from the inside. Our firm includes a former insurance-defense attorney who sat in the rooms where adjusters and their software decided how to deny, delay, and devalue claims. That knowledge is now on your side.
Bilingual service. If your family is more comfortable in Spanish, you need a lawyer who can conduct a full consultation in Spanish — not through an interpreter, but directly. Lupe Peña is fluent in Spanish and conducts client consultations without an interpreter. Hablamos Español.
Contingency fees. You should not pay anything out of pocket. The firm’s fee is contingency: 33.33% before trial, 40% if the case goes to trial. “We don’t get paid unless we win your case.” The consultation is free. The preservation letters, the records requests, the investigation — all of it is fronted by the firm and recovered only if there is a recovery.
Who We Are
Ralph P. Manginello — Managing Partner. Ralph has been a licensed Texas attorney since November 6, 1998 — 27+ years of trial practice, including in federal court (U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas). He is admitted to practice before the Texas state courts and the federal courts. He is a member of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and the Houston Bar Association. He was a journalist before he was a lawyer — trained to find the story, to ask the right questions, and to tell a jury what happened in language they can feel. He is rated “Excellent” on Avvo with a 5.0 client-review score. He has recovered over $50 million in the aggregate for his clients, including a $5M+ brain-injury settlement, a $3.8M+ amputation settlement, and a $2.5M+ truck-crash recovery. He is lead counsel in the active $10M+ Bermudez v. Pi Kappa Phi / University of Houston hazing lawsuit in Harris County — a case that involves negligent security and premises liability theories against institutional defendants, the same legal architecture that applies to a commercial-property shooting case.
Lupe Peña — Associate Attorney. Lupe is a former insurance-defense attorney who practiced at a national defense firm — the rooms where claims like yours are priced, devalued, and denied. He knows how the adjusters set reserves in the first 48 hours, how the valuation software discounts pain it cannot see, and how the surveillance and social-media monitoring works. He is fluent in Spanish and conducts full client consultations in Spanish without an interpreter — a third-generation Texan with family roots to the King Ranch. Lupe’s practice includes personal injury, wrongful death, commercial litigation, and premises liability.
Together, Ralph and Lupe bring the combination that matters in a mass-casualty shooting case: the trial experience to take the case to a jury if the insurance company will not pay, and the insider knowledge to know exactly what the insurance company is doing before it does it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sue if my family member was killed in the Midland shooting?
Yes — but who you can sue, and how much recovery is available, depends on where the shooting occurred and whether a commercial property owner, business operator, or security contractor had a duty to protect against foreseeable criminal acts. The shooter is directly liable, but the shooter’s assets are typically insufficient. The real recovery in a shooting case comes from the property owner’s insurance, and that requires proving that the owner knew or should have known of the danger and failed to provide reasonable security. That is what we investigate.
How long do I have to file a wrongful death lawsuit in Texas?
The statute of limitations for wrongful death and survival actions in Texas is generally two years from the date of death. This is the deadline to file a lawsuit. Missing it means the case is over, no matter how strong it is. But the evidence does not last two years — surveillance footage overwrites in days or weeks, witnesses relocate in the transient Permian Basin workforce, and memories fade. The deadline to sue is generous. The deadline to preserve proof is not. Call the day you can.
Who can file a wrongful death claim in Texas?
Surviving spouses, children, and parents of the decedent may bring wrongful death claims in Texas. Each beneficiary holds an independent claim — a spouse has a claim, each child has a claim, each parent has a claim. If none of these statutory beneficiaries files within three months of the death, the executor or administrator of the estate may file the claim on behalf of the beneficiaries. The personal representative is appointed by the court, and we handle that appointment as part of the work.
What is the difference between a wrongful death claim and a survival action?
A wrongful death claim compensates the family for what they lost — the financial support, the companionship, the counsel, the relationship. It belongs to the surviving spouse, children, and parents. A survival action compensates the estate for what the decedent experienced between injury and death — conscious pain and suffering, medical expenses, and funeral costs. It belongs to the estate, administered through a personal representative. The two claims are separate and cumulative. A family that pursues only one leaves money on the table.
What is negligent security and how does it apply to a shooting case?
Negligent security is a form of premises liability. When a property owner or business operator invites people onto their property — as customers, employees, or visitors — they owe those people a duty to protect them from foreseeable criminal acts by third parties. “Foreseeable” is determined by the Timberwalk framework: the proximity, recency, similarity, and publicity of prior crimes at or near the location. If a property had a history of violent crime and the owner did nothing — no lighting, no cameras, no security, no access control — the owner may be liable for a shooting that occurs on the property, even though the owner did not pull the trigger. Negligent security cases are how families reach defendants with assets and insurance instead of being limited to a shooter who has neither.
How much is a wrongful death case worth after a shooting?
The value depends on the facts: the age and earning capacity of the decedent, the number of statutory beneficiaries, the defendant’s insurance coverage, and whether the case involves negligent security against a commercial property owner. For three wrongful deaths, the range can be from approximately $1.5 million (if the shooting occurred on a public roadway with no commercial defendant and recovery is limited to the shooter’s assets) to $25 million or more (if the shooting occurred at a commercial establishment with documented prior criminal incidents, inadequate security, and a deep-pocket property owner with significant insurance coverage). The Permian Basin’s high-wage environment amplifies the lost-earning-capacity figure if any decedent worked in the oil and gas sector. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
What if my loved one was working when the shooting happened?
If any of the three decedents was working at the time of the shooting — for example, an oilfield worker at a service yard, an employee at a commercial establishment, a security guard on duty — the case may involve a workers’ compensation component in addition to the third-party negligent security claim. Workers’ compensation provides death benefits to surviving dependents, but those benefits are capped by a statutory schedule. The third-party claim against the property owner or other non-employer defendant is where the full, uncapped recovery lives. The two lanes run in parallel, and the workers’ comp carrier may be entitled to subrogation (reimbursement) from the third-party recovery — but the third-party recovery is typically far larger than the comp benefits, so the family still nets substantially more. Workplace accident representation is part of what we handle.
Will the criminal investigation interfere with my civil case?
No. The civil case and the criminal case are separate proceedings with different standards of proof, different parties, and different goals. The criminal case is the State of Texas against the shooter — its goal is punishment. The civil case is the family against whoever can be held legally responsible — its goal is compensation. The two can run in parallel. Evidence collected in the criminal investigation can be obtained through civil discovery or cooperation with the prosecutor’s office. A civil case does not need a criminal conviction to succeed — the burden of proof in a civil case is lower (preponderance of the evidence, not beyond a reasonable doubt), and the civil defendants (property owner, business, security company) are not the same as the criminal defendant (the shooter). The criminal investigation may actually help the civil case by preserving evidence that would otherwise have been lost.
What should I do if an insurance company contacts me after the shooting?
Do not speak to them. Do not give a recorded statement. Do not sign anything. Do not accept any check. Insurance adjusters — even ones who sound sympathetic — are trained to gather information that reduces the value of your claim. A “casual conversation” is not casual. A “quick check” is a trap that comes with a release attached, and once you sign it, your case may be over. The counter is simple: take their name and number, tell them your attorney will call them, and then call us at 1-888-ATTY-911. Everything the insurance company needs to know, your lawyer will tell them — in writing, on your terms, with the evidence preserved.
How do I pay for a wrongful death lawyer?
You do not pay anything out of pocket. We work on a contingency fee: 33.33% of the recovery if the case settles before trial, 40% if the case goes to trial. If there is no recovery, there is no fee. The consultation is free. The preservation letters, the records requests, the investigation, the expert retention — all of it is fronted by the firm. We do not get paid unless we win your case. This means the family of a shooting victim — who may be facing funeral costs, lost income, and the sudden financial collapse that follows an unexpected death — can get the same quality of legal representation as a corporation, without paying a dollar up front.
The Bottom Line for Three Families in Midland
Three people are dead. The criminal justice system will address the shooter. The civil justice system — if the families act in time — can address everyone else who let this happen.
The evidence is disappearing. The surveillance footage is overwriting. The witnesses are moving to the next job site. The property records are stable, but the property owner’s incentives to clean up, alter, or “lose” security records are growing by the hour. The Texas Public Information Act requests to Midland Police Department for calls-for-service records at the location should be filed now, not after the criminal case concludes.
If your family was affected by the shooting at North County Road 1140 and East Highway 80 in Midland, Texas, call us at 1-888-ATTY-911. The call is free. The consultation is free. We do not get paid unless we win. We serve families fully in Spanish. And the preservation letter — the document that freezes the evidence before it disappears — goes out the day you call.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. This page is legal information, not legal advice. For your specific situation, call us. We are here 24 hours a day, and the person who answers is not an answering service — it is a live member of our team, ready to help.
Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. Legal Emergency Lawyers™.
1-888-ATTY-911 (1-888-288-9911)
Free consultation. No fee unless we win. Hablamos Español.