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Shooting Victim Blames Armored Car Firm

ROCKVILLE, Md. (CN) - Emerson Sumo was getting into his car on a Maryland street when men who had just robbed an armored car shot him in the head and left him for dead and took his car for their getaway.

Sumo, a married man with a daughter, survived two shots to his head. He and his family sued the armored car company and the robbers in Montgomery County Court.

They claims that GardaWorld, which provides armored cars and guards for cash deliveries, does not properly train its guards to handle armed attacks and that its incentive structure causes guards to take unnecessary risks to avoid losing money.

The Sumos say defendant guards Daivon B. Young and Himar A. Sanchez were "easy targets" who "could often be found playing on their cellphones."

So, the Sumos say, the robbers - defendants Anthony Cannon, Tonnie Deonte Floyd, Marcellus Freeman and Brian Cuffie - knocked off the GardaWorld armored car on the afternoon of Oct. 26, 2012.

The Sumos say the robbers stole a Jeep Cherokee to tail Young and Sanchez's car, which was late to a scheduled pickup at a Cricket store in Takoma Park. Sanchez pulled into the parking lot at about 4 p.m. and Young got out to pick up the money bag, which contained a little more than $3,900, according to the complaint.

According to the Oct. 23 lawsuit, here's what happened next:

When Young emerged from the store, the masked robbers ran toward him wielding guns. One trained a gun on him and ordered him to get on the ground. Young tried to flee back into the store, which was "teeming" with customers. But a second robber cut him off at gunpoint.

Young dropped the moneybag, pulled out a pistol and shot four to six times at the robbers, who managed to grab the moneybag and fell in the stolen Jeep.

Meanwhile, Sanchez, perched in the armored car, did not call police, did not make a note of the Jeep's license plate or fire out of the gun portal in the armored car. Young kept firing though, hitting Floyd in the arm, and damaging but not stopping the Jeep.

"At no time after the robbery and shoot-out did Himar A. Sanchez or Daivon B. Young attempt to follow, detain or re-engage the defendants ... further demonstrating their deliberate indifference to the danger posed to the general public," according to the complaint.

The robbers bailed out of the shot-up Jeep 1.4 miles later in favor of Sumo's RAV-4, where they shot to defenseless man and abandoned him.

Floyd pleaded guilty to multiple charges related to the robbery and was sentenced in June to 18 years in prison. Freeman also pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in March 2016.

A federal jury convicted Cannon of five counts in September 2014. His sentencing is postponed until a trial in a separate matter is resolved in February 2016.

Statements from the FBI and the Department of Justice do not mention Mayhew's involvement in the robbery, and he is not listed as a defendant in the criminal proceedings.

Sumo seeks $13.5 million in damages from GardaWorld, Garda Atlantic CL, Young, Sanchez and the robbers.

A spokesman for GardaWorld said: "When our employees are victims of violent attacks, our company takes such incidents very seriously. The matter is in court, therefore we cannot comment on the specifics of this robbery which occurred in 2012."

The Sumos are represented by Andrew McGuire, with Regan Associates in Washington, D.C., who did not respond to a request for comment.

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