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Ex-Marine shot in exercise sues district

Negligence led to the shooting during training at a facility run by an arm of the district, the suit alleges.

By EDDY RAMIREZ
Published October 21, 2005

INVERNESS - A Marine veteran of the Iraq War who was accidentally shot in the chest while photographing a firing exercise at the Withlacoochee Technical Institute in 2004 has sued the Citrus County School Board.

In a lawsuit filed Monday in Citrus County Circuit Court, the former Marine, Eric C. Verhille, of Maine, accuses the district of negligent hiring and inadequate supervision. He is seeking in excess of $15,000 in compensatory damages for medical bills and mental and physical pain.

The shooting occurred on May 6, 2004, while Verhille was working as a freelance instructor for a private North Carolina-based company doing a training session at the Lecanto firing range with a dozen officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Special Operations Group. The company was contracted by the institute, which operates the firing range. The school district owns the institute.

According to the lawsuit, the institute hired an "unfit" contractor to oversee the live-fire training session and failed to provide adequate supervision.

The contractor, Leadership Management Services, had hired Verhille as an instructor. Verhille was shot directly in the chest by an officer who thought he was shooting at a target.

"He was basically put in harm's way by the coordinator of the class," said Verhille's attorney, John M. Della Costa Jr., who works in St. Petersburg. "The school district bears responsibility."

School Board attorney Richard "Spike" Fitzpatrick said Thursday he had not seen the lawsuit. Since the shooting, Fitzpatrick said, the school district has maintained that it was not responsible for Verhille's injuries.

"There was an independent professional who was in charge of that class and who hired Eric," Fitzpatrick said. "We had no requirement for supervision or responsibility for any action that took place (at the firing range)." Verhille, who was 22 when he was shot, has since been discharged after four years of service in the Marine Corps, his lawyer said. According to the Associated Press, Verhille had served on a four-man sniper team trained to scope out suspicious buildings in Iraqi cities and villages.

"He has healed up pretty well," Della Costa said. "This is a silly thing that happened. He would not have been hurt if he was not placed downrange of the shooters ... . There are very serious violations here."

According to the complaint, the school district knew that students would fire military assault weapons during the training but failed to provide "a safe and controlled environment." The lawsuit says live fire ammunition was fired over the heads and at the feet of students, instructors were stationed in the direct line of fire, and students did not receive adequate safety and weapons instruction.

When the shooting occurred, Verhille was standing on a wall of tires separating two rooms of an open-air "shoothouse," photographing the firing exercise. Verhille's feet were about 5 feet above the officers' heads, according to a Citrus Sheriff's Office report.

The School Board plans to respond to the lawsuit after Fitzpatrick and other school officials review it.

Eddy Ramirez can be reached at eramirez@sptimes.com or 860-7305.

[Last modified October 21, 2005, 02:15:38]