Owners of Georgia Apartments Ordered to Pay $10M in Shooting Death of Resident

A jury has ordered the owners of a metro Atlanta apartment complex to pay $10 million to the family of a resident who was fatally shot last year.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports a jury in Clayton County reached its civil verdict Thursday in a lawsuit filed by the family of 33-year-old Florencia Gomez-Mendez, a carpenter and father of three. He was killed during an apparent robbery while walking home from a store.

Mendez’s attorney, Jeff Shiver, argued security was lax at the Bradford Ridge Apartments despite high crime in the area.

Billy Gunn, an attorney for the apartment owners, said he would ask for a new trial and for the judge to reconsider the verdict. He said, “The reality is this should have been a $2 million case.”