Teen sues City of Charleston for gunshot wound

CHARLESTON -- A 15-year-old is suing the City of Charleston after he suffered a gunshot wound while waiting for a taxi outside Washington Manor Apartments.

In April 2009, the unnamed plaintiff visited his uncle, who was a resident at Washington Manor Apartments, to help his uncle prepare dinner and provide him company, according to a complaint filed April 21 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, including shootings, stabbings and other serious felony crimes to which "the apartment owners have done absolutely nothing to abate."

As a result of the defendant's negligence, recklessness and carelessness by failing to take any measures to make a known and unreasonably dangerous apartment complex safe, the plaintiff spent several days in the intensive care unit at a local hospital and was left 100 percent dead in his left ear, according to the suit.

The plaintiff claims the incident caused permanent scarring and has left him to struggle with severe mental and emotional issues.

The unnamed teen previously sued the Charleston-Kanawha Housing Authority in September for the incident.

The plaintiff is seeking compensatory damages with pre- and post-judgment interest. He is being represented by Thomas A. Rist and John F. Rist III.

The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey.

Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 11-C-652