LOS ANGELES, Oct. 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — M.R. Parker Law, a Los Angeles firm specializing in wrongful death and personal injury cases, has filed a lawsuit in the case of Jerry Lewis, the 50-year-old Gardena man killed over not wearing a face mask.
The firm brought the lawsuit on behalf of Lewis’s four children.
While waiting for a tow truck the evening of July 5, Lewis tried to enter Green Farm Market, a supermarket on Rosecrans Avenue in Gardena. Umeir Hawkins, a store security guard, stopped Lewis for not wearing a mask, and a fight soon broke out. Hawkins’s wife, Sabrina Carter, was at the scene, and intervened by brandishing a handgun at Lewis and other customers. The fight then ended and Lewis began leaving the scene, only for Hawkins to pull out a firearm of his own and use it to shoot Lewis, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Prosecutors have charged Hawkins with murder. Hawkins and Carter have also both been charged with possession of a handgun by a convicted felon. The two were both previously convicted in 2013 of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury.
“Jerry Lewis’s death was senseless, and never had to happen at all,” said Michael Parker, managing attorney at M.R. Parker. “The fight over wearing a mask should have ended, but instead it escalated for no reason into the taking of a human life. Now, the Lewis family has been left without a father.”
In addition to bringing a wrongful death claim against Hawkins and Carter, the Lewises’ suit also targets Green Farm Market, accusing the store of negligent hiring and supervision in its employment of Hawkins.
“Green Farm Market failed the basic test of keeping its customers safe from its own employees,” said Kenneth Shy, M.R. Parker’s lead trial attorney. “Our firm is committed to holding them accountable to the fullest extent of the law and getting justice for the Lewis children.”
M.R. Parker Law has collected nearly $100 million for clients across more than 2,600 cases, encompassing wrongful deaths, as well as car accidents, dog attacks, slip and falls, trip and falls, and other cases related to negligence and personal injury. More information about the firm can be found at mrparkerlaw.com.
