CHARLESTON -- A 15-year-old is suing the Charleston-Kanawha Housing Authority after he suffered a gunshot wound.
In April 2009, the unnamed plaintiff visited his uncle, who is a resident at Washington Manor Apartments, to help his uncle prepare dinner and provide him company, according to a complaint filed Sept. 20 in Kanawha Circuit Court.
The plaintiff claims after helping his uncle, he waited outside of Washington Manor Apartments for a taxi to take him home and sat on a stoop outside of what used to be a Charleston Police Department detachment.
As he waited for the taxi, a criminal perpetrator came out of hiding from another area on the property and pulled a gun on the plaintiff, according to the suit, and shot him at "point-blank range in the head" in an attempt to rob him.
The plaintiff claims the shooting is one of a series of substantial and serious crimes that have occurred in the past several years at the Washington Manor Apartment Complex.
"Prior crimes at the complex have included shootings, stabbings and other serious felony crimes to which the apartment owners have done absolutely nothing to abate," the complaint states.
The plaintiff claims the shooting left him 100 percent deaf in his left ear, caused permanent scarring and has left him to struggle with severe mental and emotional issues.
He is seeking general damages, economic damages and compensatory damages. He is being represented by Thomas A. Rist.
The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Charles King.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 10-C-1690
Teen sues Charleston-Kanawha Housing Authority for gunshot wound
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