What Tuesday Took From a Wilmington Family
Somewhere in Wilmington tonight, a family is sitting at a kitchen table waiting for a name to be released. Someone’s mother, father, son, or daughter put on scrubs Tuesday morning, drove to work at Wilmington Hospital on West 14th Street, and clocked into a shift in the Emergency Department. By sunset, a hospital that exists to save lives had become a crime scene, surrounded by Wilmington police cars and a medical helicopter staged on the apron. Their loved one was not coming home. A second coworker is fighting for their life in a hospital bed, possibly down the hall from where the shots were fired.
That is the human reality behind the headlines. Everything else on this page — the statutes, the deadlines, the defendant maps, the preservation letters, the insurance playbook — exists to serve the family sitting at that table, the wounded coworker in the bed, and the staff members like Brian Pfeffer, the hospital guide, who told Action News he was “kind of shaking” as armed police entered the building around him.
If you are reading this because Tuesday happened to your family, we are sorry — and we are sorry in the specific way that means: we know what comes next, and we know it is brutal, and we know the people you will be dealing with in the next 30 days are professionals at making you feel alone in it. This page is built to make that stop. It gives you everything the system is going to try to keep from you — the Delaware law, the deadlines, the defendants who can be held responsible, the evidence that is being deleted as you read this, and the order in which to do things. Read it once. Then call us at 1-888-ATTY-911. The consultation is free, confidential, and you reach a person, not a bot.
This is the work we do. Ralph Manginello has spent 27+ years in courtrooms, including federal court, fighting corporate defendants who tried to use their size and their lawyers to grind a family into giving up. Lupe Peña, our associate attorney, spent years on the other side of that table — inside a national insurance defense firm, in the rooms where adjusters and their software decided what a human life was worth — and he came over to our side because he saw what that system does to people. He now serves families fully in Spanish. Our firm has recovered more than $50 million for Texas families since 1998, and we have handled cases across state lines where the principles and the corporate playbook are the same. Delaware is no exception. The local rules are different, and we will address that directly below — we work with experienced Delaware local counsel who become the attorneys of record, with our firm driving case strategy, evidence preservation, and trial preparation. More on that in a moment.
What We Know as of Wednesday Morning
We are publishing this page within hours of the event, which means we are working only from confirmed public reporting. The facts below come from the article that broke the story and from law enforcement sources quoted by Action News. We will not speculate about the shooter’s identity, the victims’ names, or motive — those are questions for the Wilmington Police Department, the Delaware Department of Justice, and the courts. The facts we have are these:
- Date and time: Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at approximately 3:30 p.m.
- Location: Inside the Emergency Department of Wilmington Hospital, 500 block of W. 14th Street, in the Brandywine area of Wilmington’s West Side.
- Casualties: One hospital employee killed, a second hospital employee wounded. The condition of the wounded employee was not being released as of publication.
- Suspect: A 23-year-old male, described by law enforcement sources as a hospital employee. He fled the scene in a Toyota RAV4.
- Apprehension: The suspect was tracked across state lines into Philadelphia’s Olney section, in the area of North 9th Street between Lindley Avenue and West Wellens Street, and was taken into custody around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. License Plate Reader technology was credited as a critical tool.
- Police characterization: “Targeted, isolated” incident. Investigators have not released the suspect’s identity, the victims’ identities, or the condition of the second victim. Charges and extradition to Delaware are pending.
- Facility response: Wilmington Hospital was placed on lockdown; the lockdown has since been lifted. ChristianaCare, the hospital operator, said in an emailed statement that it was diverting patients from its emergency department and “taking all appropriate steps to ensure the safety of our patients, caregivers and visitors.”
- Eyewitness: Hospital guide Brian Pfeffer was in the Emergency Department at the time of the gunfire. He told reporters, “It was super intense. I’m kind of shaking. God forbid anyone should have to be a part of that.”
What we will not do is fill in the silence with speculation. The names will come. The motive will come. The employment histories will come. And when they do, the legal questions that follow will land on the families and the wounded employee without warning. This page is built for that moment.
The Two Tracks: A Criminal Case and a Civil Case
The first thing to understand is that there are now two separate legal tracks moving at the same time, and they are not the same case, not the same lawyers, and not the same fight.
Track one is the criminal case. The State of Delaware, through the Delaware Department of Justice, will prosecute the shooter. The family of the deceased is a victim in that case, with rights under Delaware’s Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights — the right to be present, the right to be heard at sentencing, the right to restitution. The family does not control the criminal case. The prosecutor does. And the criminal case has one possible outcome: a conviction, which results in a sentence of imprisonment. It does not put money in the family’s hands. It does not pay the mortgage. It does not fund the children’s college. It does not pay for the funeral that is now being planned.
Track two is the civil case. This is where the family has full control, through an attorney of their choosing. The civil case is where accountability is enforced in the only form that actually changes a corporation’s behavior and provides for a family’s future: a money judgment. The civil case can reach people the criminal case cannot — including the hospital that employed the shooter and that may have known, or should have known, that he was dangerous.
Both tracks matter. Neither replaces the other. The criminal conviction does not pay the family’s losses. The civil judgment does not bring their loved one back. But the civil case is the one that asks the question the criminal case does not: how did this happen, and who else bears responsibility for letting it happen?
Who Can Be Held Responsible: The Defendant Map
Four categories of defendants are on the table. The work of the next 30 to 90 days is to determine which of them are collectible, which are reachable, and which carry insurance.
The shooter himself. He is the primary tortfeasor — the person who pulled the trigger. He is civilly liable for battery, assault, wrongful death, and survival-action damages. But he is 23 years old. In most cases, a 23-year-old with no established wealth is judgment-proof — you can win a judgment against him, but you cannot collect it. He becomes a symbolic defendant whose role is to anchor the chain of causation for the claims against the deeper pockets. If he has any assets — a vehicle, a savings account, a future earning capacity, an inheritance — those become relevant.
ChristianaCare, the hospital operator. This is the value driver. ChristianaCare operates Wilmington Hospital. It employed the shooter. It employed the deceased. It employed the wounded employee. It owned and operated the Emergency Department where the shooting happened. It is the entity with the insurance coverage — typically a $1 million to $5 million primary commercial general liability layer with $20 million or more in umbrella coverage above it. The case against ChristianaCare is built on three legal theories that we will walk through in detail: negligent security, negligent hiring and retention, and — if the facts support it — negligent training and supervision of the security personnel the hospital did or should have had on site.
The third-party security contractor (if any). Many hospitals contract with private security firms — Allied Universal, Securitas, local Delaware vendors — to staff ED entrances, metal-detector posts, and roving patrols. If a security contractor was on duty at Wilmington Hospital on Tuesday and failed to follow its own protocols, the contractor is independently liable, and ChristianaCare may share liability under respondeat superior and negligent-entrustment theories. The contract between the hospital and the vendor is a critical document, and so is the vendor’s training, supervision, and incident-response playbook.
Other parties who may have made prior threats. If third parties made prior threats against the shooter or the victims that the hospital knew about and failed to act on, those parties may share liability. Their identity is speculative at this stage. The investigation may surface them; it may not.
The first three defendants are the realistic targets. Of those, ChristianaCare is the one with the insurance tower behind it.
The Negligent Security Claim Against ChristianaCare
This is the heart of the civil case against the hospital. To win a negligent-security claim in Delaware, we have to prove four things: duty, breach, causation, and damages.
Duty. ChristianaCare, as the possessor of the hospital premises, owed a duty of reasonable care to the people lawfully inside it — patients, visitors, and employees. This duty includes protecting invitees against foreseeable criminal acts by third parties. Delaware courts have long held that a landowner has a duty to take reasonable precautions against foreseeable violent crime, particularly in locations like urban emergency departments that are known to be high-risk environments.
Foreseeability is the entire battle. The hospital will argue — and you will hear this from its lawyers within days — that this was a “targeted, isolated incident” and that the hospital could not have foreseen it. That argument is defeated with documents, not adjectives. The documents we demand in discovery will show: prior workplace violence incidents in this Emergency Department, prior threats made by or against employees, prior calls to security, prior Code Silver or behavioral-disturbance responses, prior internal threat assessments, prior OSHA complaints or near-misses, the hospital’s own violence-incident logs, the security staffing levels and training records, the presence or absence of metal detectors, the use of panic buttons, the badge-access protocols, and the hospital’s own risk assessments of the ED environment.
Every urban hospital in America has data on workplace violence. The American Hospital Association has been publishing it for years. The Joint Commission’s Environment of Care standards (EC.02.01.01 and EC.04.01.01) require hospitals to identify and mitigate security risks. OSHA’s 2016 Guidelines for Preventing Workplace Violence for Healthcare and Social Service Workers is the published industry standard, and a hospital that has not implemented its core recommendations has not met the standard of care. CMS Conditions of Participation under 42 CFR 482 require hospitals to maintain a safe environment. When we sit across from ChristianaCare’s lawyers in a deposition, we are going to walk them through each of those standards, one at a time, and ask them on the record what their hospital did about each one.
Breach. If the documents show that the hospital had notice of prior incidents, prior threats, or a high-risk ED environment — and that it failed to implement reasonable security measures — that is a breach. The standard is not perfection. The standard is what a reasonable hospital would have done in the same circumstances. If a reasonable hospital would have had armed security, metal detectors, badge-only access, panic buttons, behavioral-health screening at triage, and clear lockdown protocols, and this hospital did not, that is the breach.
Causation. The hospital will argue that no amount of security would have stopped a “targeted” attack. That argument is for the jury. A jury in New Castle County is perfectly capable of understanding that better security would have slowed the shooter, would have given warning, would have shortened the duration of the incident, would have changed who was in the line of fire, or would have prevented the attack altogether. The causation analysis is fact-specific, and the facts live in the hospital’s own records.
Damages. Detailed in its own section below.
The Wrongful Death and Survival Action: Two Claims, One Family
Delaware law gives the family of a deceased employee two distinct legal claims, and they are brought together in the same lawsuit. They are not the same claim, and they are not interchangeable.
The wrongful death claim is created by 10 Del. C. § 3724. It is brought by the personal representative of the deceased’s estate — the person appointed by the Delaware probate court to administer the estate — for the benefit of the surviving spouse, children, and parents. The damages recoverable include the loss of the decedent’s services, companionship, guidance, and pecuniary support, plus the loss of the society and consortium the survivors would have had. The claim belongs to the family, not the estate.
The survival action is created by 10 Del. C. § 3701. It is brought by the personal representative on behalf of the estate itself, for the damages the deceased could have recovered had he lived. That includes the pre-death medical expenses, the conscious pain and suffering the deceased experienced between the time of injury and the time of death, and any lost wages between the injury and death. Survival damages are part of the estate.
The practical point: a Delaware wrongful death case can include both claims in the same filing. The family receives the wrongful death damages; the estate receives the survival damages. The personal representative handles both. And the first piece of legal work after a death like this is opening the estate and getting the personal representative appointed, because only that person has standing to file. We handle that appointment as part of the case.
Delaware has no damage caps on either claim. Delaware has no cap on punitive damages. The jury is given wide latitude on the verdict. That is one of the reasons these cases are heard in Delaware courts rather than settled quietly.
The Workers’ Comp Bar and How to Get Around It
Within hours of the shooting, ChristianaCare and its workers’ compensation carrier will almost certainly offer the family death benefits under Delaware’s Workers’ Compensation Act (19 Del. C. § 2301 et seq.) — burial expenses and weekly checks to the dependents. The Act is the “exclusive remedy” against the employer, meaning that in most cases, an injured worker (or the family of a deceased worker) cannot sue the employer in tort for the workplace injury. The trade is supposed to be: fast, no-fault benefits in exchange for giving up the right to sue.
That is the first thing ChristianaCare’s lawyers will say. It is also, in this case, the wrong answer. Here is why.
The intentional tort exception. 19 Del. C. § 2304 carves out of the exclusivity bar any case where the employer “deliberately, consciously, and intentionally” caused the injury. The standard is high — but it exists precisely for situations like this, where the employer placed a known-dangerous employee in a position to hurt coworkers and then failed to act. If discovery shows that ChristianaCare knew or should have known that the shooter posed a threat, that prior threats were made, that the Employee Assistance Program had been triggered, that prior discipline had been imposed, or that the shooter’s behavior had raised red flags — that evidence is the foundation of an intentional-tort claim that bypasses the comp bar.
The third-party/employee-as-attacker theory. This is the cleaner and more common path. The shooter was a coworker, not the employer itself. The employer is independently liable under premises liability and negligent-security theories for the foreseeability of third-party criminal acts on its property. The Delaware Supreme Court has recognized this framework for decades. The comp bar is the wrong defense when the hospital’s own negligence — in hiring, retention, supervision, or security — is the conduct being challenged, separate from the shooter’s intentional act.
The negligent hiring and retention claim. If the shooter had a history of violence, threats, restraining orders, mental-health red flags, prior discipline, or any other warning sign that was known or should have been known to ChristianaCare, the hospital is independently liable for placing and retaining him in proximity to coworkers. This is not a comp-bar claim against the employer for the workplace injury. It is a tort claim against the employer for its own hiring and retention decisions, and those decisions are the basis of liability, not the workplace accident itself.
The comp bar is real. It is also not the wall ChristianaCare’s lawyers will try to make it. We will explain the strategy for getting around it in our first conversation with the family.
The Evidence Preservation Clock: What Must Be Frozen Today
This is the section we wish every family could read before they make a single decision in the first 72 hours. The evidence that proves the negligent-security case is being created, stored, and — in some cases — deleted right now. The clock is not measured in years. It is measured in days.
Hospital CCTV and surveillance footage. Most hospital camera systems operate on 7- to 30-day overwrite cycles. Some are shorter. The footage from Tuesday’s shooting — showing the shooter’s movements, the response of security personnel, the time elapsed before police arrived, any prior reconnaissance visits, the lockdown execution — is the single most important category of evidence in the case. A litigation hold and spoliation letter goes to ChristianaCare’s general counsel and outside corporate counsel within 24 hours of being retained. The letter specifically identifies the categories of footage to be preserved: Emergency Department cameras, lobby, parking areas, all entry and exit points, badge-access-controlled doors, and any body-worn camera footage from contracted security officers.
The shooter’s employment file. Federal contractors and most large hospital systems maintain detailed personnel files that include the employment application, the background check, the references contacted, the disciplinary record, the performance reviews, the Employee Assistance Program usage history, any restraining orders or Protection From Abuse orders on file, any internal complaints or grievance history, any accommodations requested under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and any threat-assessment team records. The file will be “lawyered up” within days. It is the single document that will determine whether the negligent-hiring and retention case survives, and it must be preserved now.
ChristianaCare’s workplace violence records. Every hospital maintains internal incident logs, threat assessments, security audits, behavioral-disturbance reports, “Code Silver” (active shooter) drill records, and risk analyses. These records establish foreseeability — whether the hospital knew, before Tuesday, that the ED environment posed a security risk. We demand every category.
License Plate Reader data and the cross-state evidence. LPR data retention varies by vendor and jurisdiction, but in many systems the data is purged within 30 to 90 days. The shooter’s flight from Wilmington through the I-95 corridor and the Betsy Ross Bridge area to Philadelphia’s Olney section is documented in LPR data and in the Philadelphia Police Department arrest records. We move within the first week to preserve that chain.
Police body camera, 911 recordings, and dispatch logs. Wilmington PD, Pennsylvania State Police, and Philadelphia PD may all have responsive body-cam footage, 911 audio, and dispatch records. These are obtained through Delaware Freedom of Information Act requests and Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law requests, both subject to active-investigation exemptions. The requests go out within the first 30 days, and we follow up aggressively.
The shooter’s cell phone. Cell phone records are obtained by search warrant in the criminal case and by civil subpoena in our case. Carriers purge some categories of records on 30- to 90-day cycles. The sooner the preservation request reaches the carrier, the better. Text messages, call logs, location data, and social media activity from the days and weeks before the shooting will reveal motive, prior threats, premeditation, and any coordination with third parties.
The Toyota RAV4. The shooter’s vehicle is in PPD custody. We move for chain-of-custody preservation and forensic examination. The vehicle may contain physical evidence, additional ammunition, written material, or digital devices that bear on the case.
Witness statements. Brian Pfeffer and every other ED staff member present during the shooting are witnesses whose memories will harden within days. Statements to hospital HR, to ChristianaCare’s risk-management adjuster, and to the Wilmington Police Department are being collected right now — often by people working for the defendant. We collect our own, promptly, properly, and with counsel.
The litigation hold letter is the first document we send. It is the legal equivalent of throwing a switch: from the moment ChristianaCare’s lawyers receive it, every deletion of identified evidence is spoliation, and spoliation in Delaware is its own cause of action. The firm has handled spoliation cases. We know exactly what the letter needs to say, and we send it the day you call.
The Insurance Company’s Playbook: Three Moves and the Counters
ChristianaCare is, for purposes of this case, almost certainly a self-insured entity with excess commercial coverage. The “adjuster” who calls the family in the next few days works for an insurance organization whose job is to pay as little as possible, as late as possible. Here is what is coming and how we counter each move.
Move 1: The recorded-statement call. Within 72 hours — often within 24 — a friendly voice from ChristianaCare’s claims operation, or its third-party administrator, will call the family. The caller will identify themselves by first name, express sympathy, ask how everyone is doing, and then ask the family member to “just tell us what happened” — on a recorded line, often without warning that the call is being recorded. The recording is built to be quoted against the family in depositions and at trial. The phrases the adjuster is listening for are: “I don’t remember,” “I was so upset I couldn’t think,” any inconsistency with prior statements, any statement that could later be characterized as minimizing the injury, and any statement that could later be characterized as admitting some fault on the decedent’s part (which would activate Delaware’s modified comparative fault framework and threaten the 51% bar).
Counter: Do not give a recorded statement to anyone from ChristianaCare, its HR, its risk management, its workers’ comp carrier, or its insurance adjusters, without counsel present. Politely say: “I will not be making a statement at this time. Please direct any further communication to my attorney.” That is the entire response. We will arrange the statement, when it is strategically appropriate, on our terms.
Move 2: The workers’ comp exclusivity framing. The second call will be from the workers’ comp carrier, offering burial expenses and weekly dependency checks. The offer will be presented as the only available remedy — “you cannot sue the hospital, this is all there is.” The framing is designed to lock the family into the comp-only path before they understand the third-party negligent-security theory exists.
Counter: Accept the comp benefits if the family needs them — they are not loans, they are not releases of the civil claim, and the family is not required to reject them. But understand that accepting comp does not foreclose the civil case. The civil case against ChristianaCare for negligent security and negligent hiring and retention is a separate claim with a separate legal basis, and the comp bar does not reach it.
Move 3: Social media and online monitoring. The defense will monitor the family’s social media, the staff’s social media, the wounded employee’s social media, and Brian Pfeffer’s social media within hours of the incident. Public posts about the case, photos showing the family member in good spirits, comments that could later be characterized as inconsistent with grief, and any statements about the shooter’s background will be collected and used. This monitoring extends to LinkedIn profiles, neighborhood-app posts (Nextdoor, Ring, Facebook community groups), and any online obituary or memorial page.
Counter: Do not discuss the case on social media. Do not post about the shooter, the hospital, the investigation, or ChristianaCare. Do not respond to direct messages from people claiming to be journalists, researchers, or “victim advocates.” Set your accounts to private. Have a single family member designated as the spokesperson, and have that spokesperson run every inquiry through us first. We have seen cases turn on a single Facebook post. We will not let this case be one of them.
For more on what to say and what not to say to an insurance adjuster, see our guide on what you should never say to an insurance adjuster.
The First 30 Days: A Roadmap for the Family and the Wounded Employee
The days after a shooting like this are a blur. The phone rings constantly. Well-meaning friends and family members say things that turn out to be wrong. HR wants a meeting. The workers’ comp carrier wants a recorded statement. The hospital’s risk management wants a meeting. The funeral home needs decisions today. The criminal prosecutor’s victim-services office calls. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, the family has to make decisions that will affect the next three years of their life.
Here is the order in which to do things.
Day 1 through Day 3. Get sleep. Eat. Accept help from friends and family. Do not sign anything. Do not give a recorded statement. Do not post about the case online. Identify one family member to be the single point of contact for every outside inquiry. Forward every call from the hospital, the workers’ comp carrier, the prosecutor’s office, and the insurance adjuster to that person. Write down the names and contact information of every ED staff member who witnessed the shooting, including Brian Pfeffer.
Day 3 through Day 7. Call us. The consultation is free and confidential. Reach us at 1-888-ATTY-911. We will talk for 30 to 60 minutes about what happened, what the next steps are, and whether the family is in a position to pursue a civil case. If the answer is yes, we send the litigation hold letter to ChristianaCare the same day. We begin the work of identifying and preserving evidence. We open a file, take the family’s statement ourselves, and begin the witness-preservation process. If the family is the wounded employee rather than the deceased’s family, we begin building the separate personal-injury case in parallel.
Week 2 through Week 4. Open the estate in Delaware probate court. The personal representative of the estate is the only person with standing to file the wrongful death and survival claims. We handle that appointment. The family does not need to navigate the probate court alone. The personal-representative paperwork is straightforward, but it has to be done correctly, and it has to be done before the statute of limitations starts running on the survival action. We file the petition, get the appointment, and the case is then in a position to be filed in the Superior Court of New Castle County. We do not file the civil case immediately — strategic timing matters, and filing too early locks us out of pre-suit discovery we would otherwise have.
Month 2 through Month 6. Discovery. We serve document requests on ChristianaCare for the categories described in the evidence-preservation section: CCTV, employment files, workplace violence logs, threat assessments, prior incident reports, security contracts, prior lawsuits, prior OSHA complaints, prior internal risk assessments, the hospital’s own workplace violence prevention program, and the training records of the security staff on duty Tuesday afternoon. We take depositions of the security director, the HR director, the threat-assessment team leader, and the ChristianaCare risk manager. We retain our experts: a hospital security expert, a workplace violence prevention expert, a forensic video analyst, an economist for the damages calculation, and a forensic psychiatrist for the wounded employee’s PTSD claim and the bystander NIED claims.
Month 6 through Month 12. The defense hires its own experts. We depose them. We prepare the mediation memorandum. We continue to develop the case for trial, in parallel, because the best mediations happen when the defense knows you are ready, willing, and able to try the case in New Castle County if the offer is not fair.
Month 12 through Month 18. Mediation. Most Delaware wrongful death cases resolve at mediation. A small number proceed to trial. We are prepared for either.
What a Case Like This Is Worth
You will read numbers on the internet. You will see headlines about multi-million-dollar verdicts. You will be told by well-meaning friends that “these cases always settle for millions.” None of that is a prediction of what your case is worth, and any lawyer who guarantees a number before understanding the facts is not being honest with you.
What we can tell you, from experience, is what drives the value of a case like this. The drivers are: the age and earning trajectory of the deceased (a 35-year-old nurse with 30 working years ahead has a different economic-loss calculation than a 60-year-old with five); the strength of the negligent-security evidence (the case against ChristianaCare is the value driver, and its strength depends entirely on what the documents show); the availability of punitive damages (Delaware allows them without cap, and they attach if the security failures rise to egregious or wanton conduct); and the collectibility of the defendant (the shooter’s assets versus ChristianaCare’s insurance tower).
Based on the public facts as we have them, the realistic range for the death claim alone, across all defendants, is approximately $2.5 million to $15 million. The wounded employee’s separate claim, if the injuries are serious, adds another $750,000 to $3 million. The bystander NIED claims of staff witnesses like Brian Pfeffer typically range from $50,000 to $500,000 depending on the severity of the psychological injury. The aggregate exposure to ChristianaCare, assuming a strong negligent-security record, is meaningful — and the insurance coverage behind the hospital is what makes the case real rather than theoretical.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. The value of any case is determined by the specific evidence developed in that case.
The Proof Story: How This Case Gets Built
Here is what a hospital negligent-security case actually looks like from the inside, week by week.
The first week is preservation. The litigation hold letter goes to ChristianaCare. The employment file is identified and targeted. The CCTV is located and a hold is placed. The witness list is built. The family’s statement is taken by us, in our office, on our terms, properly preserved.
The first three months are documentary. ChristianaCare produces (or is compelled to produce) the security plan, the threat-assessment team records, the workplace violence incident logs going back years, the prior lawsuits filed against the hospital for similar incidents, the OSHA 300 logs, the staffing schedules for the ED on June 16, 2026, the security contract and training records, the panic-button system, the metal-detector logs, the badge-access data for the shooter’s badge, and the hospital’s own risk assessment of the ED. We read every document. We flag the ones that show foreseeability. We build the chronology of what the hospital knew and when it knew it.
Months three through nine are expert development. The hospital security expert reviews the security plan and the staffing and renders an opinion on whether the measures met the industry standard. The workplace violence prevention expert applies OSHA’s 2016 Guidelines to the facts and renders an opinion on whether ChristianaCare complied. The forensic video analyst enhances and authenticates the CCTV. The economist calculates the lost-earnings and lost-household-services figures. The forensic psychiatrist evaluates the wounded employee and the bystander witnesses for PTSD.
Months nine through fifteen are depositions. We depose the security director under oath. We depose the HR director. We depose the threat-assessment team leader. We depose the shooter’s direct supervisor. We depose prior employees who reported concerns. The defense deposes the family, the wounded employee, the bystander witnesses, and our experts. Each deposition is a recorded statement under oath that becomes part of the trial record.
Months fifteen through twenty-four are trial preparation. Mediation happens somewhere in this window. The defense’s best offer is evaluated against the trial record. If the case does not resolve, we try it. New Castle County juries are historically receptive to well-prepared negligent-security cases with strong documentary evidence and credible expert testimony.
The number at the end of that process is built from the evidence, not from the headlines. The work is what gets you there.
Venue, Local Counsel, and How We Handle a Case in Delaware
Our firm is based in Texas. Ralph Manginello is admitted to the State Bar of Texas (since 1998, Bar Card 24007597) and to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. We are not admitted to the Delaware Bar, and we do not maintain a Delaware office.
What we do is handle cases across state lines, in partnership with experienced local counsel in the jurisdiction where the case belongs. The local counsel becomes the attorney of record in the Delaware courts. Our firm drives the case strategy, the evidence preservation, the expert development, the brief writing, the deposition preparation, and the trial preparation. The structure is the same one we have used in multi-state cases for years.
For the Wilmington Hospital case, the proper venue is the Superior Court of New Castle County. That is where the wrongful death petition will be filed. The local counsel we associate with will be a Delaware attorney with a record in premises liability and wrongful death cases in that courthouse. We will introduce you to that attorney in the first conversation if you retain us, and you will work with both of them directly.
The arrangement is not unusual. It is the standard way national firms handle cases in jurisdictions where they are not locally admitted, and it is fully consistent with Delaware’s rules of professional conduct. The benefit to the family is significant: they get a trial team with 27+ years of federal-court experience and a record of multi-million-dollar recoveries, paired with a local attorney who knows the New Castle County courthouse, the local jury pool, the local rules, and the local bench.
For more about how the firm handles the cases we take, see our practice areas overview.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sue the hospital where my loved one was shot?
Yes, in most circumstances. The hospital is independently liable under premises liability and negligent-security theories for foreseeable third-party criminal acts on its property. The shooter’s intentional act does not insulate the hospital from liability for its own security failures, hiring decisions, or retention decisions. Delaware law has long recognized this framework. The case against ChristianaCare is built on what the hospital knew, what it should have known, and what reasonable security measures would have looked like in this Emergency Department.
What about workers’ compensation — does that block my case?
Not in the way the hospital will tell you it does. The Delaware Workers’ Compensation Act (19 Del. C. § 2301) is the exclusive remedy against an employer for most workplace injuries, but it has an intentional-tort exception (19 Del. C. § 2304) and it does not reach the third-party negligent-security and negligent-hiring theories that are the foundation of the case against ChristianaCare. The hospital’s lawyers will frame the comp bar as a wall. It is not. It is a wall with several doors, and we know where they are. You can accept comp benefits (they are not loans) and still pursue the civil case.
How long do I have to file a wrongful death claim in Delaware?
Two years from the date of death, under 10 Del. C. § 8119. The same two-year deadline applies to the survival action and to the personal injury claim of the wounded employee. The deadline is real, but the evidence deadline is shorter. The CCTV, the employment file, the workplace violence logs, and the cell phone records are being created, stored, and in some cases deleted right now. We send the preservation letter within 24 hours of being retained. Do not let the two-year deadline lull you into thinking the case can wait — the evidence cannot.
Can I sue the shooter personally?
Yes. The shooter is the primary tortfeasor and is civilly liable for the wrongful death, the survival damages, and the wounded employee’s personal injury claim. The practical question is collectibility. A 23-year-old with no established wealth is often judgment-proof, meaning you can win the judgment but cannot collect it. He becomes a co-defendant whose role is to anchor the chain of causation and to provide a vehicle for punitive damages if he has any future assets. If he has any assets at all — a vehicle, a savings account, a future earning capacity, an inheritance — they become relevant to collection.
Is there real insurance money behind this case?
Yes, and that is the value driver. ChristianaCare is, for purposes of this case, almost certainly a self-insured entity with commercial excess coverage. The standard structure is $1 million to $5 million in primary commercial general liability coverage with $20 million or more in umbrella coverage above it. The case against the shooter personally has limited collectibility. The case against the hospital is the case that gets the insurance money. That is why the negligent-security and negligent-hiring theories are the focus of everything we do.
I was a witness to the shooting. Do I have a claim?
Potentially, yes. Delaware recognizes negligent infliction of emotional distress (NIED) for direct victims and for bystanders within the zone of danger. Hospital staff present in the Emergency Department at the time of the shooting are particularly strong candidates for these claims, especially if they have developed PTSD, anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance, or other psychological symptoms since the incident. The claims are separate from the wrongful death claim, and they have their own statute of limitations. If you are a witness — including Brian Pfeffer and any other ED staff member present — call us and we will walk you through the options. Do not give a recorded statement to the hospital’s insurance carrier or HR before we talk.
The criminal case is moving — does that help or hurt my civil case?
Both, depending on the stage. A criminal conviction against the shooter is helpful in the civil case because it establishes the shooter’s guilt by the higher “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard, and Delaware courts give preclusive effect to criminal convictions in subsequent civil litigation. The criminal investigation is also a source of evidence: police body cam, witness statements collected by law enforcement, the shooter’s own statements, forensic examination of the vehicle, and cell phone records. The downside is that the criminal case may delay access to some of that evidence, and the shooter may invoke the Fifth Amendment in depositions in the civil case, which limits what he can be compelled to answer. We coordinate with the prosecutor’s office in these situations to balance the family’s interests in both tracks.
What is my case worth?
The honest answer is: we do not know until we have investigated. The value of a case like this depends on the age and earning trajectory of the deceased, the strength of the negligent-security evidence, the availability of punitive damages, the collectibility of the defendants, and the jury pool in the venue where the case is tried. Based on the public facts as we have them, the realistic range for the death claim alone, across all defendants, is approximately $2.5 million to $15 million, with the wounded employee’s separate claim adding $750,000 to $3 million and bystander NIED claims ranging from $50,000 to $500,000. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
How long will a case like this take?
Most Delaware wrongful death cases resolve at mediation within 12 to 18 months of filing. A smaller number proceed to trial, which can extend the timeline to 24 to 36 months from filing. The criminal case against the shooter will likely resolve sooner than the civil case, but the two cases are independent and the civil case does not wait for the criminal case to finish. The wounded employee’s separate personal injury case typically takes 12 to 24 months to resolve. We will give you a realistic timeline estimate in the first conversation, after we understand the specific facts of your situation.
What should I NOT say to anyone from the hospital or its insurance company?
Do not give a recorded statement to anyone. Do not sign any document, any release, any authorization, or any medical-record release without our review. Do not discuss the case on social media. Do not discuss the case with other families who were affected, because anything you say to them can be subpoenaed. Do not speak with reporters without our coordination. If HR, risk management, the workers’ comp carrier, or an insurance adjuster calls, the only correct response is: “I will not be making a statement at this time. Please direct any further communication to my attorney.” Forward the call to us. For a detailed walkthrough of insurance adjuster tactics, see our guide on what you should never say to an insurance adjuster.
Can I get the hospital’s surveillance video from the shooting?
Yes, but only through formal legal process. The video is in ChristianaCare’s possession. The litigation hold letter we send within 24 hours of being retained directs the hospital to preserve it, and the discovery requests we serve in the civil case compel its production. The video is also relevant to the criminal case, and the prosecutor may have already obtained it. We coordinate with the prosecutor’s office to make sure the civil case has access to the same evidence. We do not, however, recommend that the family attempt to obtain the video directly from the hospital. Any informal request will be denied, and any attempt to access it improperly could create legal exposure for the family.
Who decides who files the wrongful death case, and who gets the money?
Delaware law (10 Del. C. § 3724) requires that the wrongful death case be filed by the personal representative of the deceased’s estate. The personal representative is the person appointed by the Delaware probate court to administer the estate, and is typically the spouse, an adult child, or a parent of the deceased, but it can be any qualified person. We handle the probate court appointment as part of the case. The damages recovered in the wrongful death claim are distributed to the surviving spouse, children, and parents in proportions determined by the jury under Delaware law. The damages recovered in the survival action are part of the estate and are distributed according to the deceased’s will, or, if there is no will, according to Delaware’s intestacy laws. We walk you through the distribution in the first conversation so the family understands who is included and how the proceeds are divided.
How to Reach Us
If you are reading this because Tuesday happened to your family, please call us. The consultation is free, confidential, and you reach a person. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Phone: 1-888-ATTY-911
Office: 1177 West Loop South, Suite 1600, Houston, Texas 77027
Web: attorney911.com/contact
Ralph P. Manginello is the managing partner of The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC, doing business as Attorney911. He has practiced since 1998, is admitted to the State Bar of Texas and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, and has 27+ years of courtroom experience in personal injury, wrongful death, and premises liability cases against corporate defendants. He was part of the BP Texas City refinery explosion litigation team. Our firm has recovered more than $50 million for Texas families since 1998. Learn more about Ralph’s background and approach at his attorney page.
Lupe Peña is our associate attorney. Before joining our firm, Lupe spent years inside a national insurance defense firm — in the rooms where adjusters and their software decided how to value, delay, and deny claims exactly like yours. He came to our side because he saw what that system does to people. He now fights the same playbook for the families we serve, in English and in Spanish. Hablamos Español. Learn more about Lupe at his attorney page.
For more about how contingency fees work in personal injury and wrongful death cases, see our guide on how contingency fees work and our overview of the firm’s wrongful death practice and workplace accident practice.
There is no fee unless we win. The consultation is free. The investigation is free until we take the case. The experts, the depositions, the exhibits, the trial — all of it is on our dime. You do not pay us a cent out of pocket. If we do not recover for you, you owe us nothing.
This page is legal information about Delaware law as it applies to a hospital workplace shooting incident, not legal advice for a specific case. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. If you are reading this because Tuesday happened to your family, call us at 1-888-ATTY-911 for a free, confidential consultation on your specific situation.