CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Lax safety and training policies for employees at a local discount store led to a customer getting shot by a store employee.
Then last week a Nueces County jury awarded the customer a quarter of a million dollars. And the discount store chain promised its shareholders to revamp its safety training for employees.
In video provided to KRIS 6 News by the plaintiff's attorney, you see a man in a light colored plaid shirt. As he and a woman go to check out of the Dollar General store in the Bel-Aire Shopping Center on the 2700 block of South Staples. It's midday January 13th 2018.
That's John Castillo, the plaintiff in this case. As Castillo and the woman attempt to leave the store, they are confronted by a store employee who accuses them of shoplifting.
There's a confrontation. The employee then proceeds to lock the front door. But Castillo eventually gets past the female employee and unlocks the front door.
But as he and his companion are walking out of the store they're confronted by another store employee, Sergio Diaz, the defendant in this case, and a veteran. Diaz pulls out a gun and fires 2 shots. One of them hits Castillo in his left leg.
Castillo's attorney Joseph Ritch said that Mr. Castillo did not do or say anything aggressive outside the store.
The civil trial in this case began in Judge Todd Robinson's County Court at Law #1 Monday, Dec. 4. Attorney Ritch zeroed in on Dolgencorp of Texas, Dollar General's parent company, and their lax policies and procedures related to store safety. He recalled this startling testimony from a Dolgencorp executive.
"He indicated when questioned about the specific polcies in their handbook, about how you deal with situations that arise in stores like this, he didn't know why they were there, or why they had it," Rich said.
In fact, after Dolgencorp shareholders did their own internal study, they found that the company was a habitual violator of OSHA safety requirements and has had numerous claims concerning those violations, all for the bottom line
The said that, "our policies and procedures in how we train our employees is a situation where we're chasing profit over people."
The company training needs to be improved, but when shareholders first raised the issues, the company balked. However, it has since pledged to do better.
A jury awarded John Castillo an estimated $225,000.00 in this case. Criminal charges in this case were filed against Sergio Diaz, but he plead out. No one else was charged.
