Gunshot victim settles with convenience store, employees for $2M

Summary

• Kansas City shooting victim Romeo Clarke secured a $2 million premises liability settlement.
• Lawsuit alleged convenience store employees failed to call 911 or intervene during escalating threat.
• Clarke suffered severe injuries, including brain injury and cardiac arrest, after being shot through the heart.
• Settlement involved Stop N’ Shop owners, Maham LLC, and four employees in Jackson County Circuit Court.

A 31-year-old Kansas City man who was severely wounded in a November 2022 gas station shooting has settled a premises liability lawsuit against the business, its owners and four employees for $2 million

Just before 10 a.m., Romeo M. Clarke was shot through the heart and wrist after a verbal altercation with another customer at the Stop N’ Shop convenience store at 5151 E. Red Bridge Rd. escalated.

Plaintiff’s attorney Nick Schmiemeier said that his client required life-saving emergency surgery after he “was deprived of oxygen to his brain for approximately 30 minutes, suffering from an anoxic brain injury, cardiac arrest, acute respiratory failure” and a puncture of the right front wall of the thorax.

The suit against owner Maham LLC and its workers alleged that the store breached its duty by allowing the armed customer to remain inside the store for nearly eight minutes, unencumbered.

Rather than attempting to intervene or call 911 after the aggrieved customer drew a handgun and announced that he was “born to kill,” two of the three employees ran and hid in a secure back room, Schmiemeier said, while a third remained on a personal phone call.

According to a 265-page police report, Clarke drew his own weapon in response to the actions of Niko M. Gonzales, 25, with an ensuing shootout leaving both men wounded. Gonzales —who records show was charged with felony armed criminal action — was subsequently killed in a separate Kansas City shooting in February 2024.

“He desperately hoped an employee would call 911,” Schmiemeier said of his client. “But no effort to protect him was made once the threat was identified by defendant’s employees.”

The seven-figure settlement was reached in late April, records provided by the plaintiff’s counsel show. Attorneys for the defendants did not respond to a request for comment.

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Amount of verdict or settlement: $2 million settlement

Type of Action: Premises liability

Venue: Jackson County Circuit Court at Kansas City

Case Number/Date: 2416-CV33495/4/23/2026

Judge: Circuit Judge Adam Caine

Injuries alleged: head, brain, neck, shoulder, arm, elbow, wrist, hand, cardiovascular, pulmonary, respiratory, neurological

Injuries detail: Plaintiff shot through heart and wrist

Special damages: $803,000, with $33,784 paid

Caption: Romeo Clarke v. Maham, LLC; Oksana Synytsya, Claudia-Patricia Castaneda-Escobar, Jay Patel, Mohammed Asif

Plaintiff’s attorneys: Nicholas Schmiemeier (lead), Shawn Foster, Thomas Preuss; Preuss/Foster, Leawood, Kansas

Defendant’s attorney: Jeff Nichols; Wallace Saunders,

Overland Park, Kansas