$16.1M verdict against a hotel after its off-duty police guard shot an unarmed trespasser

A Hinds County jury returned a $23 million general verdict for a man who was shot in the face by a security guard working for a downtown Jackson hotel. The jury put 70% of the fault on the hotel and 30% on the city, which employed the guard as a police officer. The hotel’s share, shown here, is $16.1 million.

Early one morning in April 2007, a 24-year-old homeless man with a mental illness wandered onto a ramp in the hotel’s parking garage. The guard, an off-duty police officer working the hotel’s security, tried to talk to him, and the man ran. The guard chased him off hotel property and caught him in a nearby parking lot. While the guard tried to handcuff him, the man struggled and reached toward his pocket. The guard fired, believing he had a gun. He was unarmed. The bullet broke bones in his face and cut his carotid artery. He survived, but his mental illness worsened and he now needs care around the clock.

The man argued there was no reason to shoot an unarmed, slightly built man who had at most trespassed. The hotel argued the guard acted reasonably, and that once the chase left hotel property the guard was no longer working for the hotel. The jury rejected that defense and found against both the hotel and the city.

The jury did not split the award between economic and non-economic damages, so we cannot say how Mississippi’s $1 million cap on non-economic damages would apply. We have not found the final judgment, any post-trial ruling or an appeal.