The security firm at Columbiana Centre is paying $530,000 to the family of a man murdered in 2007 at the Harbison area mall.
Allied Barton Security Services admitted no liability for the death in the settlement, which was approved in Lexington County last week by Circuit Judge Knox McMahon.
The wife and children of Robert Bell, 49, alleged Allied Barton personnel failed to adequately protect him and daughter Shaunna from the shooting and other confrontations with Shaunna Bell’s then-estranged husband, Michael Young Jr.
Young, 25, is imprisoned without parole until June 2057 for Robert Bell’s killing, records at the state Department of Corrections say.
Bell’s daughter, 26, reported four encounters in which she felt threatened by Young to mall security officers in the nine months preceding the murder, her family’s lawsuit seeking damages for wrongful death said.
Those incidents, and two others elsewhere, led Bell to chauffeur his daughter to and from her computer sales job in the mall in the week prior to the killing, court records say.
Mall security officers didn’t provide protection when Young came to the mall on June 13, 2007, even though he had been told in September 2006 to stay away from the mall, records say.
In addition, an officer who saw the elder Bell and Young arguing in the parking lot moments before the murder did not stop to check it out, the family’s lawsuit said.
Allied Barton contended its officers couldn’t foresee the murder.
In addition, Allied Barton alleged in comments before the settlement, Bell’s family was “careless, reckless and grossly negligent” in dealing with the harassment.
Shortly before the murder, records say, Shaunna Bell went inside to retrieve an item she had left at work but didn’t seek help from security officers to end the argument. She instead returned to sit in the car.
She then was wounded by Young in the shooting, records say.
Bell’s widow Gwendolyn and two sons will receive nearly $303,000 after expenses and fees paid to their lawyer, Robert Rikard. Bell’s widow and youngest son live near Pine Ridge.
A private settlement was reached earlier with Shaunna Bell, Rikard said.
Neither Allied Barton nor their lawyer, Ronald Diegel, could be reached for comment.
Mall operations manger Dick Flythe said the company still provides security there but declined further comment.
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