TUSKEGEE, Ala — The parents of an 18-year-old killed in a shooting on Tuskegee University’s campus on Nov. 9 filed a lawsuit against the university on Tuesday, alleging negligence by school officials led to their son’s death.
The lawsuit, brought by Tamika Johnson and Larry Johnson, Jr, the parents of La’Tavion Jashun Johnson, alleges that a failure to secure the premises of Tuskegee brought about the shooting, which left Johnson dead and at least 16 other people injured.
“The plaintiffs allege that the decedent’s death heretofore described was a proximate consequence of the negligent, reckless, wanton and/or intentional conduct of the defendants and one or more of the fictitious parties defendant described hereinabove,” the attorneys for the parents wrote.
A spokesperson for Tuskegee University declined comment on Wednesday, citing a policy of not discussing pending litigation.
Tedd Mann, among the attorneys for the parents, wrote in an email Wednesday that they might have further comment after discovery in the case is complete.
The shooting took place during Tuskegee’s homecoming celebrations. Of the 16 people reported to be injured, 12 were wounded by gunfire.
JaQuez Myrick, 25, of Montgomery was arrested in connection with the shooting on Nov. 10 and charged with violating a federal law on machine gun possession. Law enforcement said Myrick had a gun with a trigger activator, which can rapidly increase a firearm’s rate of fire and are illegal under federal law. According to an affidavit, Myrick told a law enforcement official he fired his gun but did not aim at anyone.
Myrick as of Wednesday morning had not been directly charged in federal or state court with Johnson’s death or the injuries on campus.
The lawsuit contends that Myrick “had a duty not to engaged in negligent discharge of a firearm on a university campus in, at or near student housing, including the dormitory where a gathering had occurred for homecoming festivities at Tuskegee University on November 9, 2024 and November 10, 2024.”
An attorney for Myrick was not listed in the Alabama court website. A message was left with the law office of the attorney representing him in the federal case.
Tuskegee canceled classes in the week after the shooting and made counselors available to students and staff. The school also limited access to the campus in the wake of the shooting.
In the wake of the shooting, Alabama legislators called for efforts to address gun violence. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Alabama had 25.5 firearm deaths per 100,000 people in 2022, the fourth-highest gun death rate in the nation. Alabama had more total gun deaths that year than New York State, which has almost four times the population of Alabama.
This article originally appeared in the Alabama Reflector, an independent, nonprofit news outlet. It appears on FOX54.com under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
