CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – A man who worked as a security guard at an apartment complex is suing the City of Charleston and its mayor after he says he was injured during a riot in 2020.
Attorneys for Michael Hainer filed the suit against the city and Mayor John Tecklenburg claiming that it was the city’s leader’s “negligence” that led Hainer to suffer “substantial” injuries.
The suit states that on May 30, 2020 Hainer was working security at the SkyGarden apartments on Woolfe Street when multiple people attacked him during the violence and looting that had broken out. Lawyers say Hainer required emergency medical assistance following the incident.
The evening’s riot happened just five days after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
According to the suit, the mayor had “adequate opportunity to perceive the events that were occurring nationwide” over the several days prior to the Charleston riot.
Lawyers say it was Tecklenburg’s “grossly negligent, careless, reckless, willful and wanton acts or omissions that allowed the looting and violence that occurred the night of this incident to run rampant.”
The suit states that Tecklenburg had the duty to mobilize and use the police force to keep citizens safe during the riot.
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