Survivors, families of victims of ABB shooting file lawsuit

UPDATE: Whelan Security was not providing service to the ABB plant, Whelan President Greg Twardowski said in a Wednesday phone interview. Twardowski said the company was “befuddled” by being named in the lawsuits.

 “We’re considering whether to file our own claims for being named erroneously in the suit[s] as a result of the reputational harm it caused my firm,” Twardowski said.

Hershewe didn’t immediately return a phone call Wednesday.

– Heather Cole

Survivors and the family members of victims of the St. Louis ABB Inc. plant shootings have filed lawsuits in St. Louis City Circuit Court against on-site security employees and the companies the lawsuits say employed them.

At least eight cases have been filed so far. ABB is not named in any of those suits.

One of the cases is a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the four children of Terry Mabry Sr., an ABB employee killed in the shooting, against Securitas Security Sevices USA, Inc., Whelan Security Co., and two security employees.

In January, gunman and ABB employee Timothy Hendron shot and killed three people at the north St. Louis plant and injured five others. Hendron died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The police investigation surrounding the investigation is still pending, but the lawsuits claim negligence and state that Mabry “entrusted himself to the protection of the Defendants and relied upon them to provide a safe environment during the work day” and that the defendants “owed Plaintiffs’ decedent the duty to use ordinary care to protect Plaintiffs’ decedent from harm while at the ABB plant.”

Securitas in-house attorney Alan Sedley was not immediately available for comment.

Ed Hershewe of The Hershewe Law Firm in Joplin is representing some of the plaintiffs.

“We’re actively going to pursue this case through the court system and find out why there was no security to protect those killed and injured,” Hershewe said. “We believe that the court will afford an opportunity for us to do discovery and will allow our folks their say and obviously their day in court – where both sides get a fair shake.”

At the time of the shooting, Hendron was involved in a class-action lawsuit against ABB for alleged pension losses. The case is awaiting a judge’s ruling.

Whelan, one of the security companies, also was named in another wrongful death suit brought by the family of a councilwoman killed in the Kirkwood City Hall shooting nearly two years ago. In that case, the family alleged that that Whelan’s on-site security employee left the scene as Charles Lee “Cookie” Thornton began shooting.

Hershewe and plaintiffs attorney Daniel J. Walkenhorst said that they are not yet sure who will represent the defendants in the cases.