Carjacking victim, shot nine times, suing CVS

Suit claims location was dangerous

A man shot nine times during a 2014 carjacking in a CVS parking lot is suing the drugstore chain, alleging the company and its employees should have taken steps to make the location safer for customers.

William Lilley stopped at the store on Menaul near Eubank for a soft drink just before midnight May 2, 2014, according to the lawsuit filed last month. He parked his customized red Mercedes close to the entrance and moments later a pickup truck pulled in. A person hopped out, leaving the truck running, walked to the Mercedes’ driver’s-side window and told Lilley that he was stealing the car.

The man pulled out a gun and shot Lilley at least nine times, hitting him in the chest, abdomen and legs. He pulled Lilley out of the car and dumped him in the parking lot before driving away in the Mercedes.

Lilley argues that the police frequently were called to the store, but CVS failed to take steps to protect customers, including Lilley, from “foreseeable harm.”

Lilley alleges he was not adequately warned of the dangers at the CVS and suggests that signs should be posted in the parking lot and near the entrance to tell customers that the location is dangerous, particularly after dark.

“CVS, once it became aware that this is a dangerous little store,” Lilley’s attorney Charles Bennett said, “needed to post either a guard at night ... or just a huge warning sign for customers, all lit up, saying, ‘Dangerous after dark, proceed at your own risk.’”

The shooting was not captured on the store’s surveillance cameras, though Lilley is seen limping inside afterward. A store employee called 911.

Lilley spent 90 days in a local hospital and incurred $1.2 million in medical bills.

Bennett said the car was discovered soon after just blocks away, but no one was ever charged with the crime.

Listed as defendants are CVS Health, CVS Pharmacy and CVS Caremark, along with four unnamed employees. None of the representatives from the three CVS companies mentioned in the lawsuit responded to Journal requests for comment.

Bennett said the corporation had a duty to protect its customers.

“They failed in that duty repeatedly,” Bennett said. “And sooner or later somebody was going to really get hurt in that store, and that person was Will Lilley.”

Lilley is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.