Security guard injured in May 2020 riot sues mayor, City of Charleston
CHARLESTON, S.C. May 28 2022 A former security guard has filed a lawsuit against Mayor John Tecklenburg and the City of Charleston over injuries he sustained during the May 30, 2020 riot in Downtown Charleston.
According to the suit, Michael Hainer was working as a security guard at the SkyGarden apartments on Woolfe Street the night of the riot. He said that around 11:00 p.m., “multiple unknown assailants attacked him during the violence and looting that broke out.” The attack allegedly left him in need of emergency medical care.
The suit alleges that Mayor Tecklenburg should have known a serious level of violence was possible because of the other protests-turned-riots that happened across the country after George Floyd was killed by a Minnesota police officer.
“It was John J. Tecklenburg’s negligent, grossly negligent, careless, reckless, willful and wanton acts or omissions that allowed the looting and violence that occurred the night of this incident to run rampant,” the suit said.
The suit demands a jury trial and is seeking “actual and punitive damages … for the costs of this action … and for such other and further relief as this court deems just and proper.”
