Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Gunshot Victim Blames Dallas Police

DALLAS (CN) - Dallas police heartlessly mocked a paralyzed shooting victim's spinal injuries after failing to respond to several 911 calls, the woman claims in court.

Roxanna Mayo sued the City of Dallas on Monday in Dallas County Court.

She claims that police who finally responded after five 911 calls laughed at her as she lay bleeding from a gunshot wound, kicked her leg and said, "Can you feel that?"

Mayo lived in an apartment with ex-boyfriend Quartiq Anthony Sharper, her 12-year-old daughter, 19-year-old son and mother.

On the morning of Jan. 19, she says, Sharper threatened her and her daughter. Mayo says Dallas police did not respond to her 911 call. "The police had a history of not responding to 911 calls from the area in which plaintiff's apartment was located," the complaint states.

Mayo says she made a second 911 call in the afternoon she and Sharper argued about buying dog food and Sharper, drunk, threw a bottle at her head and threatened her daughter.

"At this point, plaintiff, her daughter and her mother left the apartment, and went outside, where Mackenzie placed a 911 call to the Dallas Police Department on her cell phone at 4:39 p.m. which was not answered, nor redialed by the operator," the complaint states.

The three women then made three more 911 calls, as 4:40 p.m., 4:49 p.m. and 5:06 p.m. Mayo says they family wanted to leave the area, but a 911 operator told them they had to wait for police because it was a domestic dispute. So all three women returned to the apartment after waiting 60 minutes for police to arrive.

"The arguments resumed and the boyfriend shot plaintiff with plaintiff's own 9mm target pistol," the complaint states. "Plaintiff only used the target pistol at firing ranges. The bullet shattered plaintiff's shoulder, passed through plaintiff's lungs, which collapsed, and lodged in plaintiff's spinal cord. As a result, plaintiff has lost motion entirely in her left arm and below her chest."

Neighbors called 911 after the shooting and police finally arrived. Mayo says the officers "just mocked and laughed" at her when she told them she thought she was paralyzed.

"The officers may have seen that the bullet entered at plaintiff's arm, and thought that she could not be paralyzed from that, but obviously the bullet ricocheted inside plaintiff's body to cause all the injuries it did," the complaint states.

"The police even kicked plaintiff's leg and asked, 'Can you feel that?' to test whether plaintiff was paralyzed."

Mayo said doctors have told her it is not possible to remove the bullet from her spinal cord, resulting in permanent disability.

She says she is unable to continue her $100,000 a year job as owner of The Lash Lab, a beauty salon in North Dallas.

"Plaintiff's salon was on the 6th floor of a prestigious high rise building in Highland Park," the complaint states. "Plaintiff had numerous well known clients, including the wives of NFL players. Plaintiff had clients who flew into Dallas just to have their lashes done at plaintiff's salon."

Dallas police spokesperson Chinh Le declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Mayo seeks damages for pain and suffering, lost earnings, medical expenses, mental anguish, and under the Texas Tort Claims Act for malfunctions in the city's 911 emergency computer and phone systems.

She is represented by W.D. Masterson with Kilgore Kilgore in Dallas.

Follow @davejourno
Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...