Shooting victim sues Bartow for lack of security at Mosaic Park
BARTOW FL Feb 28 2019 — A 69-year-old Bartow lawyer who was shot twice, beaten and robbed at gunpoint last year during an early morning walk in Mosaic Park is suing the city, alleging that Bartow failed in its responsibility to keep the park safe.
In his lawsuit, Maxie Broome alleged the assailants had been involved in similar assaults in previous days, putting law enforcement on notice that a threat existed. He also asserted that the city should have taken security measures, including posting security guards, to protect those visiting the city park.
Broome, who was treated for two gunshot wounds to his right thigh and several facial fractures following the Jan. 15 attack, is seeking unspecified damages in excess of $15,000.
He and Jeanette Smith, 89, were walking in the park near Park Lane and Floral Avenue at about 5:30 a.m. when three assailants approached them from a nearby parked car and held them at gunpoint, demanding “Give me what you’ve got,” according to Bartow Police reports. Smith told Bartow Police detectives that Broome shined his flashlight at the assailants, and one of them began to beat him.
They left with Broome’s cellphone and .22-caliber revolver, police reports stated.
Police later arrested Felipe Fernandez, 16, of Winter Haven, and Stanley Smith Jr., 20, and Yazman Shipman, 18, both of Lake Wales, and the trio was charged with robbery with a firearm, attempted first-degree murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. All three are being prosecuted as adults. Each of them is being held in the Polk County Jail without bail, jail records show.
Smith is scheduled to enter a plea March 15, according to prosecutors, and Fernandez and Shipman are awaiting trial. Robbery with a firearm and attempted first-degree murder each carries a penalty up to life imprisonment.
Fernandez is charged with armed burglary and armed robbery for two unrelated Winter Haven crimes occurring the day before the Bartow attack. He’s alleged to have broken into a Winter Haven home, taking clothes, two televisions, three laptops and a BB gun, and to have robbed an Uber driver at gunpoint at a car wash, according to court records.
Smith faces two counts of burglary and two counts of grand theft on allegations he took two cars from the McGuire Kia dealership in Lake Wales two days before the Bartow incident, court records show.
In the lawsuit, filed Thursday in Circuit Court, Broome asserts that the suspects “had been involved in several similar assaults in Polk County, Florida, fairly near the Mosaic Park vicinity; which criminal attacks had fully come to the knowledge of the police authorities … such as to impute directly to (the city) constructive knowledge of such activity.”
City Attorney Sean Parker declined comment on the lawsuit Tuesday, saying the city doesn’t publicly discuss pending litigation.
The Ledger
