Injured Corpus Christi police officer files million dollar lawsuit against apartment complex
Corpus Christi TX Jan 25, 2022
A Corpus Christi police officer filed a lawsuit seeking more than $1 million after he was shot multiple times and severely injured while responding to a family disturbance at the former Watercolor Apartments in August 2021.
Senior officer Manuel Dominguez, a 20-year veteran of the department, filed the lawsuit against the former and current owners of the Southside apartment complex on Oct. 18, 2021, according to Nueces County court records.
The complex was previously known as Marbella Apartment Homes and now operates as Caspian Apartment Homes.
The suit alleges that the owners, operators, or managers of the apartment “knew, or should have known, of the violent and reckless nature of many of the tenants and guests in the Apartments,” including the suspected shooter, 20-year-old Joshua Powell, who now faces a capital murder charge.
The suit alleges the defendants “consciously ignored these tenants’ and guests’ criminal propensities,” and instead “of evicting these dangerous individuals Defendants continued to profit from them.”
“This type of incident could happen to anyone in our community, not just law enforcement officers like Officer Dominguez,” one of Dominguez’s attorneys, Stuart R. White, told the Caller-Times in a statement. “The Defendants’ conduct places everyone who visits any apartment complex or residential complex at risk of serious injury and death.
CCPD Senior Officer Manuel Dominguez with his family. Dominguez’s daughter, Victoria Dominguez, created a GoFundMe for her father after he was shot multiple times and sustained serious injuries on August 3, 2021 while responding to a disturbance at a southside apartment complex.
“Our firm believes, and the law agrees, that apartment complex owners should use reasonable security measures to keep known criminals from doing business on and engaging in acts of violence on their properties,” White said.
Attorneys representing the former owners and managers of the apartment complex filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in November 2021, arguing there was no basis for action and requesting their clients be dropped from the case.
According to court records, they also attempted to invoke the common-law “firefighter’s rule,” which bars first responders, such as firefighters and police officers, from “recovering in premises liability cases for injuries that result from risks inherent in responding to an emergency if the injuries are caused by only ordinary negligence.”
Dominguez’s attorneys objected to this argument, however, saying it was filed just two hours before a court hearing relating to matter.
Nueces County Court-at-Law No.1 Judge Robert J. Vargas denied the request to dismiss the lawsuit on Jan. 7.
