by Leila Atassi/Plain Dealer Reporter
CLEVELAND — The family of a security guard, who was gunned down while on duty in November, is suing the assisted-living facility where he worked and the security company that employed him.
In the lawsuit, filed Monday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, Deborah Boyd, mother of Johnnie Boyd Jr., charges that U.S. Security Associates, Millenia Housing Management and Lourexis Manor left their son unarmed and unprotected in a notoriously dangerous East Side neighborhood.
Frank Gallucci III, one of the family's attorneys, said the area surrounding the Lourexis assisted-living facility on Hector Street experiences more than 3,200 violent crimes a year, yet Johnnie Boyd was sent there without the proper training, protective equipment or weaponry. The lawsuit says the area is "saturated with criminal activity."
The family seeks at least $25,000 in damages.
The facility and the security company could not be reached to comment on the lawsuit.
Boyd, 22, graduated from Health Careers Center, a science and technology magnet program in the Cleveland school district. There, he took college preparatory classes, earned all A's and aspired to become a dental technician.
He was on duty at Lourexis on Nov. 29, about 9:30 p.m., when he left the security station to investigate a disturbance in the parking lot. There, a group of juveniles shot him in the head and stole his 1981 customized Oldsmobile Cutlass.
Dominic Kilgore, 16, and Dorian Simpson, 17 , have been charged with aggravated murder, aggravated robbery and receiving stolen property in the case. They were arraigned in adult court earlier this month.
Kilgore is also charged with carrying a concealed weapon and having the gun.
Another man, Maurice Taylor, 18, was charged with murder for supplying the teens with the gun.
Two 15 year olds were also charged with aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, grand theft and tampering with evidence. Prosecutors said they will seek to try one of them as an adult.
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