Parents Of Slain Students File Wrongful Death Suit Against USC
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From the April 18 memorial on campus for Wu Ying (left) and Qu Ming (right). (Gracie Zheng/Neon Tommy)
According to City News Service, Wanzhi Qu and Xiaohong Fei, Ming's parents, and Xiyong Wu and Meinan Yin, parents to Ying, filed the complaint Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeking unspecified damages.
Their children were shot a little over a month ago in what police say may have been a botched carjacking. Ming and Ying were seated in a car parked in the 2700 block of Raymond Avenue near campus around 1 a.m., when the still-unidentified shooter approached the vehicle and killed both.
In a statement issued that day, USC officials said they were "saddened and outraged by this callous and meaningless act." The school's Department of Public Safety joined the Los Angeles Police Department's investigation to solve the crime.
The university has continued to struggle with easing the concerns of its community. DPS and LAPD have both issued statements about crime decreasing in the area over the last decade.
Some measures have been taken to improve security since the shooting. Last month, USC and the LAPD announced a contract to add 30 new officers to the Southwest Division to aid in cleaning up the area. The details of that deal, namely the cost and timeline of such a move, were left out in the April 27 announcement and have still not been released.
Meanwhile, according to the families' attorney Alan Newman, Ying and Ming's parents were both offered financial aid by the university in restitution. According to USC attorney Debra Wong Yang, "As part of our support for the families, we met with them and offered financial assistance as a gesture of kindness and sympathy. The attorney for the families subsequently instructed them to decline USC's gesture," resulting in the lawsuit.
"That's absolutely false," Newman countered when reached for comment. "That's not what we (attorneys) do. The parents decided on their own to deny it because it tied in a complete release of liability." He also noted the amount of the offered aid was "relatively minor."
In the official filing, the complaint called for action based on "intentional misrepresentation" and negligence. The complaint pointed out that USC's website "extols the virtues of the school" and purports to be among the nation's safest campuses. "USC is not one of the safest U.S. universities and colleges," the filing continued, "and does not provide twenty four hour law enforcement services in the surrounding neighborhoods and is in a high crime area."
The families also said their children were misled into believing the "urban" neighborhood was safe, "since in China, the more urban the area, the safer the area."
USC's attorney Yang said the incident was not grounds for lawsuit. "USC is deeply saddened by this tragic event, which was a random violent act not representative of the safety of USC or the neighborhoods around campus," she said. "While we have deep sympathy for the victims' families, this lawsuit is baseless and we will move to have it dismissed."
Asked whether he thought USC might settle quietly or continue to fight against the suit to avoid taking blame for the shootings, Newman said he couldn't predict either way. "That's all speculative," he said by phone Thursday. "I know what the right thing to do is obviously. But I can't say what someone else will do."
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We need updates for whether or not the gun marks match the suspect's gun.
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Good Morning,
I would ask, before deciding the University is not at fault, to let the facts of the case lay open in a court of law.
I don't know the facts or the impending lawsuit. I am only writing here in general terms.
Public and private universities as well as police departments do not disclose all crime statistics.
Doing this, effects how crime will look in certain areas of the city or how "dangerous” a university is perceived.
By hiding or concealing crime statistics will make an area appear to be free of crime and thus safer. Then outsiders will feel more comfortable to visit or live there.
Universities are BIG business. Having out of state students is a large benefit to any school. Not only do they pay out of state tuition, they pay to live in "on campus" housing and eat at the school's dining halls. They also bring needed sums of money into the local economies. They purchase clothes, eat at restaurants, drink in bars, wash their clothes at Laundromats, etc., etc. The universities want foreign students, because local or in state students don't bring in that kind of money. This is a major concern of how important it is to attract outside students. It's only basic economics.
But the safety of a citizen, resident or any human being of any community should NEVER be compromised.
The parents who lost their beautiful children will never see them again. But, they do deserve the right to be compensated if others are at fault. Even if it is only a sum of money they receive for their loss.
I don’t know these individuals, but what happened was a horrible thing. It should not have occurred and if the university is at fault then it is liable for the compensation.
Alan Newman seems like a typical greedy lawyer latching onto these parents like a $ parasite. These students were OFF CAMPUS not attending class. Case closed.
If you read the lawsuit, it's sort of ridiculous. Now, we all know this was a horrible incident and that USC could do many things to improve community safety and relations — but in the end, the only person to blame is the shooter. Unfortunately, we haven't found him/her yet, so the University is becoming a scapegoat.
The filing claims that USC does not have 24/7 security. Does anyone else find this a bit laughable? How does one explain, then, how students can call DPS's emergency line...oh, 24/7 and get a response? The lawsuit also contends that the families are owed money because the neighborhood wasn't patrolled by DPS. I missed the point where USC is supposed to provide security in all areas students live. Are they going to come patrol my neighborhood in Silver Lake, then? What about the students who live in DTLA, should they get personal DPS detail as well?
While USC did need to reevaluate its service boundaries, these students chose to live outside DPS's patrol. It's not their fault, but it seems a strange thing to blame USC for.
The claims are pretty bogus. It's a shame some scammy lawyer is preying on this family because CLEARLY, the lawyer didn't do his research well enough. I'm sure it'll get thrown out.