On May 12, 2026, DCH Regional Medical Center nurse Ada Doss was shot and killed in the hospital parking lot after her shift. Matthew Taylor is charged with capital murder.
In June, her husband sued Taylor, DCH Health Care Authority, and Universal Protection Service LLC, doing business as Allied Universal Security Services, the firm contracted to handle security on the DCH campus. The complaint alleges negligence, wantonness, and wrongful death.
The allegation against Allied is specific. According to the complaint, Taylor was dropped off at the emergency department entrance earlier that day by someone reporting that he was having a manic episode. Allied security personnel, along with DCH personnel, were told about his behavior. The complaint alleges that no one attempted to locate or confront him, even after he was described as shirtless, shoeless, and armed.
As alleged, the issue is not how the security officers were hired. It is what security was told and what happened afterward.
DCH asked the court to dismiss it from the case. The judge denied that request in July and, in August, declined to pause the civil case while Taylor’s criminal prosecution proceeds. DCH and Allied have each responded to the lawsuit, DCH denies responsibility, and discovery is proceeding. No trial date has been set.
Nothing has been decided. DCH and Allied are defending the case.
Being named is the default
- Los Angeles. A security guard working at a South Los Angeles Home Depot shot and killed 30-year-old Carlos Lara Jr. in February 2024. Police said the guard was attempting to detain Lara in connection with an assault on a food vendor and that the shooting occurred as Lara tried to drive away. No criminal charges have been filed against the guard. Lara’s parents filed a wrongful death complaint naming the guard, two security companies, the plaza’s manager and owner, and Home Depot. The case is pending.
- Kansas City. Brandon Wells, working under the U.S. Protective Service name, used his position as a security guard to detain and sexually assault two women in 2023. Two civil suits filed in August 2026 name Wells, three corporate entities operating under the U.S. Protective Service name, Waffle House Inc., and a separate property owner, alleging negligent hiring, retention, and supervision. The litigation is pending.
- Holbrook, New York. Bouncer David Cruz, employed by contract security firm First Choice Protection, fatally beat 32-year-old Jake Scott outside Tailgaters bar in 2022. Cruz was later convicted of first-degree manslaughter and sentenced to 24 years in prison. Scott’s family sued Cruz, First Choice Protection, the bar, and its owner. The civil case remains unresolved.
The circumstances are different, but the pattern is the same: the security officer worked for a vendor, and the client business was named as a defendant.
None of these civil cases has been decided. That is precisely the point.
Being named, producing documents, answering discovery, sitting for depositions, involving insurers, and paying lawyers begins long before a court decides who was actually responsible.
The good news for Alabama businesses
We are not in the business of selling fear, so start with the good news. Alabama law is generally more favorable to property owners than headlines from California or New York might suggest.
In Moye v. A.G. Gaston Motels, Inc., 499 So. 2d 1368 (Ala. 1986), the Alabama Supreme Court reaffirmed the general rule that, absent special relationships or circumstances, a person ordinarily has no duty to protect another from the criminal acts of a third person. Alabama courts applying that principle have examined whether the particular criminal conduct was foreseeable, whether the defendant possessed specialized knowledge, and whether the criminal conduct was a probability rather than merely a possibility.
In Ledbetter v. United American Insurance Co., 624 So. 2d 1371 (Ala. 1993), the court held that negligent supervision requires evidence that an employer knew, or through reasonable diligence should have known, of an employee’s incompetence. Alabama law also generally ties that theory to the employer-employee relationship.
Those are meaningful protections.
But they do not prevent someone from filing a complaint.
A good defense still costs money
Good law is a defense, and a defense is something you raise after you have been sued.
DCH raised its defenses. The court declined to dismiss it at this stage, and the case moved into discovery. That means producing documents and answering questions under oath.
For a business that contracts its security, those documents can describe the entire arrangement: the contract, post orders, training records, incident reports, prior incidents, communications with the vendor, staffing decisions, and instructions given to the officers working the property.
That is a cost most businesses never price when comparing security bids.
Not the verdict.
The defense fees. Depositions. Document production. Insurance involvement. Management time. Public reporting. All of it can arrive before anyone reaches the ultimate question of whether the business was legally responsible.
My perspective comes from a career spent building and reviewing investigative case files. Documentation matters.
If a security vendor screened its officers and documented it, trained them and can prove it, and issued clear post orders that officers acknowledged and followed, discovery produces evidence of a functioning security program rather than gaps someone else gets to explain.
If the vendor cannot produce a training record for the officer assigned to your property, a signed post order, or written guidance explaining what that officer should do when someone reports a threat, those gaps become questions.
Questions require answers.
And answering them costs money.
In a case like Doss, the allegation ultimately brings the issue down to something remarkably simple: what was security told, and what did security do?
A written protocol addressing that moment, together with evidence that the officers understood and were trained on it, is exactly the kind of record that matters after something goes wrong.
What companies should ask before they sign
Licensing matters. Insurance matters. Price matters.
But none of them tells a client what the record will look like after a serious incident.
Before retaining a security company, ask what background screening it conducts beyond the licensing requirement. Ask what training officers assigned to your property receive. Ask whether that training is documented. Review the post orders. Ask how officers are expected to respond when an employee reports a threat, a suspicious person, or someone believed to be armed.
Then ask how the company verifies that the officers working your property actually understand those instructions.
Those questions matter because after an incident, someone else may ask them.
The Doss litigation illustrates the point particularly well. The central allegation is not simply that something terrible happened on hospital property. The complaint alleges that security personnel received information about a specific person and failed to act on it.
That turns an abstract security question into a very concrete one:
What were the officers supposed to do when they received that information, and can anyone prove they had been trained to do it?
A security contract transfers responsibility for performing certain security functions. It does not necessarily transfer all of the client’s exposure when those functions are questioned later.
That is why the cheapest qualified vendor and the lowest-risk vendor are not necessarily the same thing.
At Praesidium Protective Services, our standards are built around that distinction. We screen, train, document, and establish clear expectations for personnel assigned to client environments.
Those measures cannot guarantee that a company will never be sued. They can help ensure that if the security program is examined afterward, there is a defensible record of what was expected and what was done.
I am not an attorney, and nothing here is legal advice. This article reports on allegations contained in court filings and published reporting. Allegations in pending civil litigation have not been proven unless otherwise stated. Businesses should consult their own counsel regarding their specific legal exposure.
Sources
WBRC, "Judge rules discovery can proceed in Ada Doss civil litigation" (Aug. 25, 2026): https://www.wbrc.com/2026/08/25/judge-rules-discovery-can-proceed-ada-doss-civil-litigation/
Patch (Tuscaloosa), "Family Of Slain DCH Nurse Ada Doss Sues Hospital, Security Company": https://patch.com/alabama/tuscaloosa/family-slain-dch-nurse-ada-doss-sues-hospital-security-company
Patch (Tuscaloosa), "Judge Denies DCH's Request To Be Dismissed From Ada Doss Wrongful Death Lawsuit": https://patch.com/alabama/tuscaloosa/judge-denies-dchs-request-be-dismissed-ada-doss-wrongful-death-lawsuit
Patch (Tuscaloosa), "DCH Responds To Wrongful Death Lawsuit Involving Slain Nurse": https://patch.com/alabama/tuscaloosa/dch-responds-wrongful-death-lawsuit-involving-slain-nurse
ABC 33/40, "Judge Denies Motion to Stay Wrongful Death Lawsuit in DCH Nurse Shooting Case": https://abc3340.com/news/local/alabama-judge-denies-motion-to-stay-wrongful-death-lawsuit-in-dch-nurse-shooting-case-ada-doss-august-2026
Courthouse News Service, "Home Depot accused of negligence in fatal shooting of customer by security guard": https://www.courthousenews.com/home-depot-accused-of-negligence-in-fatal-shooting-of-customer-by-security-guard/
Audacy KNX News, "Driver fatally shot by security guard outside South L.A. Home Depot identified": https://www.audacy.com/knxnews/news/local/driver-fatally-shot-by-guard-at-south-l-a-home-depot-idd
KCTV5, "Women sue KC security guard, company after his guilty plea in sexual assault case" (Aug. 28, 2026): https://www.kctv5.com/2026/08/28/women-sue-kc-security-guard-company-after-his-guilty-plea-sexual-assault-case/
Suffolk Daily Voice, "Bouncer Who Fatally Beat Holbrook Bar Patron Gets 24 Years In Prison": https://dailyvoice.com/new-york/suffolk/bouncer-who-fatally-beat-holbrook-bar-patron-gets-24-years-in-prison-justice-was-served/
Moye v. A.G. Gaston Motels, Inc., 499 So. 2d 1368 (Ala. 1986)
Ledbetter v. United American Insurance Co., 624 So. 2d 1371 (Ala. 1993)