Four of the five people who were shot last week at the Oakwood Terrace Apartments in Pensacola have filed a lawsuit against the apartment complex’s federally-funded operating and management companies, seeking approximately $10 million in damages.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday evening by The Witherspoon Law Group on behalf of Tony Jefferson, Timothy Beck, Jerkavia Morgan and Ladaryl Purifoy, who were each shot during an April 15 shooting at Oakwood Terrace Apartments.
The lawsuit claims the company that operates Oakwood Terrace the DM Oakwood Terrace LLC and Oakwood Terrace’s parenting-management company Marquis Asset Management Inc. neglected to provide proper security measures that could have prevented the shooting that hospitalized five people.
Enough is not being done to curb violence and protect residents of the Oakwood Terrace Apartments, Escambia County activists, church leaders and officials argue, and they are calling on the complex s owners to do their part to solve the problem.
That starts with investing some of the company s profits back into the people who live in the apartments, said Escambia County District 3 Commissioner Lumon May.
May was part of a group that also included Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons, Interim Pensacola Police Department Chief Kevin Christman, multiple pastors and a handful of local activists who met with Cecilia Cossio, president of Marquis Asset Management Inc., who traveled to Pensacola from her company s headquarters in Dallas, Texas.