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Robin Dominique is suing the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Coroner’s Office and other entities in the state of New Orleans in relation to a shooting at a Covington law firm last year, according to The Times Picayune.
Dominique worked at the Upton Law Firm and is suing for damages that include past and future lost wages and medical expenses. She filed the lawsuit along with her husband, Eldon Dominique Jr.
The shooting occurred when Roderick Rist stormed into the firm, fired 60 shots and then killed himself on July 30 of 2013. Rist pulled into the parking lot at the firm and when he could not gain access he shot the glass door and then walked into the building. Once inside, he continued to open fire.
The lawsuit was filed on July 23 by Jonathan E. Mitchell, an attorney from Baton Rouge. Dominique worked at the firm as the office manager and she claims she “sustained physical injuries and severe emotional injuries.” One of the injuries sustained includes post-traumatic stress disorder. The lawsuit states that her husband suffered from “a loss of consortium, service and society” stemming from the incident.
The lawsuit said that the parish and the sheriff’s office neglected to “properly investigate direct threats of violence by an individual known to be dangerous and mentally unstable,” and the two entities did not “properly and thoroughly confiscate firearms from the home of a mentally-unstable individual.”
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Just one day before the shooting the sheriff’s office visited Rist at his home in Slidell after a neighbor expressed concern about “disconcerting statements” he made.
Deputies from the office left when Rist told them he was fine.
Prior to the shooting, some two weeks prior, Rist’s mother filed a criminal complaint with the sheriff’s office. She accused her son of pushing her vehicle into the porch using his vehicle.
Rist’s mother is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Emily Buell Rist, according to the lawsuit, claimed that she failed to “report direct threats of violence to appropriate authorities” and failed to “take reasonable steps to prevent an individual known to be mentally unstable from obtaining access to firearms.”
The St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office has also been accused of failing to “communicate and/or publish information of dangerous criminal behavior and direct threats of violence to the appropriate parties and legal authorities.”
