JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The family of a young father killed at a Westside apartment complex is getting a $3.6 million wrongful death settlement.
In 2017 a young girl’s life changed forever. She was at home with her father, DeAngelo Tillie, when two people burst into their unit at Camelot Gardens and opened fire, killing the father of two.
“She heard the carnage, she heard the gunshots. And after it subsided she walked outside and she saw what the aftermath was, which was her father had been shot multiple times,” Pedro Echarte with Haggard Law said.
Echarte says Tillie and his girlfriend had moved into the apartment just three weeks prior.
Now, years later, the former owner is paying Tillie’s family $3.6 million in a wrongful death settlement.
It’s an unusual settlement because the legal team argued that the owners were liable for not providing adequate security following earlier violent crimes at the complex.
“This was one of the most dangerous properties I have seen in the entire state of Florida during that one-year period of time,” Echarte added.
According to Haggard Law, the former owner, who controlled Eagle Gardens of Jacksonville, LLC, and Lohman Property Management, failed to invest in security. They couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.
“They had multiple shootings – I think it was about nine shootings,” Echarte said.
He says Tillie and his girlfriend were not told their new home had been the scene of several prior violent crimes, adding that the owner failed to address the criminal activity and largely ignored the problem.
“Prioritizing their own profits over the safety and security of the people that live there,” Echarte added.
The firm says Tillie’s murder is still unsolved. The family asks anyone who knows about the incident to call JSO.
Action News Jax reached out to the current owners of the complex, now known as Riverbank, about any security measures in place. We’ll update this story if we get a response.
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