Jury Reaches $5.7 Million Verdict against Taco Bell Franchisee after Employee Shooting

Safety at Work

Hartford, CT (WorkersCompensation.com) – A jury in Hartford, Conn., reached a $5.7 million verdict against a Taco Bell franchisee after an employee at one of the stores shot and wounded two people, including another employee.

The shooting took place outside of the Taco Bell in Hartford on Nov. 15, 2020. Police were called to the restaurant that day for a report of a shooting with two injured people. When they arrived, two people were in the parking lot of the restaurant suffering from gunshot wounds. One of the injured was an off-duty employee of the fast-food restaurant.

Police also learned that Armando Perez, 35, of East Hartford, had gone back into the restaurant with several other employees. Perez was employed by Taco Bell and was working at the time of the shooting. Emergency Response Team personnel responded and helped to evacuate customers and employees from inside the restaurant.

Perez fled the scene, and detectives secured an arrest warrant for him. But Perez met with his attorney the next day and turned himself into the police. He was booked on a $750,000 bond and faced charges of criminal attempt at murder, assault, criminal use of a firearm and criminal possession of a firearm. Police indicated that Perez was a convicted felon at the time of his arrest.

Lawyers representing the victims in that shooting claimed the Taco Bell franchisee, GF Enterprise, LLC, and two of the store’s managers, were negligent at the time of the shooting.

According to Flood Law Firm, LLC, the fast-food restaurant failed to do adequate background screening on the shooter before he was hired, and failed to identify that he had a criminal record that included gang activity. Additionally, the firm said, the two managers who were responsible for the store on the night of the shooting failed to flag threats Perez made in the workplace, or to notice that he had a gun in the workplace. The law firm said it was a failure by the franchisee to enforce its own safety and workplace violence policies.

The attorneys said the managers and staff at the restaurant had a history of using Perez to “solve all of their problems,” especially when it came to issues surrounding crime and understaffing at the location. The attorneys said that on the day of the shooting, Perez had an argument with another employee which was witnessed by management. However, instead of being sent home, as per policy, he was kept on the clock because of staffing issues.

The other employee, Samuel Martinez, then returned to the store hours later to pick up his girlfriend. That’s when Perez allegedly fired 17 shots at his family.

Perez was later found guilty of first-degree assault for which he served a sentence of 20 years in jail, suspended after eight years.

Martinez was shot in the knee and arm during the incident. The jury awarded him $2.4 million after a 10 percent deduction for comparative negligence.  The jury awarded Martinez’s stepfather, who was shot in the heel, $2.6 million. And the jury awarded Martinez’s stepsister $700,000 for her claim of “bystander distress.”

The jury found that GF Enterprise, LLC was negligent in hiring Perez and in its supervision of Perez. The court ruled that the shooter’s prior criminal history was inadmissible and that his visible gang tattoos were admissible. According to the law firm, Perez’s record at the time he was hired included convictions for first-degree assault, criminal possession of a firearm, riot in a correctional institution and possession of a weapon in a correctional institution.

According to OSHA, homicide is a leading cause of fatal workplace injuries in the United States, with 470 workers killed in 2024, accounting for over 64 percent of violent occupational deaths that year. In 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found there were 435 fatal gunshot injuries in American workplaces, accounting for about 83 percent of all workplace homicides that year. That constituted a 12 percent increase from 2021. Workplace homicides have been rising since a low point in 2020, with guns being the primary weapon used in these deaths. Additionally, thousands of workers are injured in nonfatal violent incidents, which can involve gunshots, stabbing, or physical assault. Data from 2019 indicated over 3,000 cases of nonfatal gunshot wounds in the workplace.

While gun violence can occur in any workplace, industries such as healthcare, sales, retail, and transportation often experience higher rates of violence.

Share This Article: