Lawsuit alleges Mercy Hospital security failed to protect St. John woman killed
A wrongful death lawsuit filed Thursday in Illinois states Mercy Hospital security failed to act to prevent a gunman from coming back inside to kill a St. John woman and Chicago police officer.
Lawyers for Brian Less, the father of Dayna Less, 24, filed the suit on behalf of her estate in Cook County Circuit Court. It names Mercy Hospital & Medical Center, its parent company Trinity Health Inc., SDI Security Inc., and the administrator for Juan Lopez’s estate as defendants.
“Dayna’s death was a direct result of systemic failures in security at Mercy Hospital which allowed a domestic violence incident to escalate into a triple homicide on hospital grounds,” it alleges.
Less was killed Nov. 19, 2018, by Lopez, who confronted his ex-fiance, Dr. Tamara O’Neal, 38, before shooting her dead in the parking lot. He then reentered the hospital and shot Less, a pharmacy resident, who tried to escape with a coworker after coming off the elevator, the lawsuit states.
Lopez also killed Chicago Po l i c e O f f i c e r Samuel Jimenez, 28. Lopez was shot in the chest by police before killing himself inside the hospital.
Lawyers Matthew Piers and Mark Dym, representing Less’s family, allege hospital security knew Lopez arrived in the lobby between 1:45 p.m. and 3:12 p.m. before he went outside to confront and shoot O’Neal.
Lopez was showing “clearly suspicious behavior” for 1.5 hours, before he went outside to confront O’Neal, saying he wanted her engagement ring back.
He chased O’Neal around the parking lot with a gun, as she begged bystanders to help her. Security watched on camera as it happened, the lawsuit alleges.
During that time, they did not issue alerts warning of an active shooter, the lawsuit states. Within minutes, Lopez reloaded and reentered the unlocked hospital as Less was coming down the elevator with a coworker, unaware of what was happening, it states.
As they saw Lopez, he told them to “get the (expletive) out of here” before shooting Less multiple times in the chest, back and arm as she tried to run toward the front entrance. She was later pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
“Mercy and SDI literally watched this armed and dangerous man hunt down and kill Dr. O’Neal, then shoot at the police when they arrived, and then stop and reload his weapon. Yet they did nothing,” Piers said.
It did not lock doors, shut down elevators, it said. Despite phone calls from witnesses, the hospital issued an active shooter alert only after Less was shot, it alleges.
“Amazingly, they continued to do nothing as Lopez walked back into this still unlocked hospital building. And even then, watching all that time, they did not implement an active shooter alert — a so-called ‘Code Silver’ — until after Lopez shot Dayna multiple times. By then, it was far too late.”
Less was a Lake Central
High School and Purdue University’s College of Pharmacy graduate, who started her hospital residency in July 2018. She had been set to marry her childhood sweetheart of nine years within months, the lawsuit states. Her mother had been working on the wedding dress at the time of her death.
Her parents, Brian and Teena, “will continue to suffer the indescribable loss of their only child for the rest of their lives,” the lawsuit states. “Dayna was exceptional in so many ways and was the pride and bright star of the Less family and a joy to everyone who met her.”
“Their suffering is compounded by the horrific circumstances of her death, the knowledge of their intense suffering between the time of the first encounter with Lopez and her demise some time later, and the knowledge of how easily Defendants Mercy, SDI and Trinity could have prevented it,” it said.
O’Neal’s family, who lived in Portage before moving to LaPorte, has since helped set up a scholarship at the University of Illinois Chicago in her honor.