 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Shooting range sued over suicide
By TAMARA LUSH
© St. Petersburg Times, TAMPA -- Two years ago today, Loretta Tomesak-Anderson and her husband walked into a shooting range and paid $7.95 to rent a Smith and Wesson 9mm handgun. After discharging a few rounds, Tomesak-Anderson pointed the gun at her head and fired. She died instantly. Now, Tomesak-Anderson's family is suing the business, Shooting Sports, for renting her the pistol. The 45-year-old mother of three was drunk when she walked in the door, said family lawyer Dan Duryea, and range employees should have never handed her the gun. Duryea filed the lawsuit Monday in Hillsborough Circuit Court. "This is a place that supposedly teaches firearm safety," said Duryea. "These shooting ranges should know that if a person stinks of alcohol, they shouldn't be given a gun." Duryea said Tomesak-Anderson had a blood-alcohol level of 0.28, three times the level at which Florida law presumes impairment. But Benjamin Nenno, a Shooting Sports employee who watched Tomesak-Anderson die, said Monday that range employees didn't know she was drunk, and later found that she had been drinking vodka, which has little smell. Nenno, who is 22, wondered why Tomesak-Anderson's husband, Sean Anderson, didn't stop his wife from renting a gun. "Her husband should have known," he said. Nenno said the couple rented the gun and were assigned to lane nine. There are 15 lanes at Shooting Sports, Nenno said, and every lane was full on Sept. 25, 1999. The couple was "shooting and arguing," said Nenno, and after about an hour and a half, Tomesak-Anderson put the gun to the back of her head. "At first, I thought she was dumb and was scratching the back of her head with a pistol," he said. "I jumped the counter and by the time I got into the range, she was on the ground." Nearby, a young boy shooting with his family saw the suicide. The boy had to step over Tomesak-Anderson's body, said Nenno. Duryea said that although Tomesak-Anderson "had a history of psychiatric treatment," the gun range is still at fault. He wants a jury to hear the case. Several people, including Nenno, are named in the suit. The range's owner, Michael Spielvogel, was also named. Earlier this year, Spielvogel was convicted in federal court on charges of attempted extortion, conspiracy, lying to the FBI, filing a false statement and mail fraud. According to court documents, Spielvogel and another man lied in affidavits in an effort to extort a big settlement from Marion County in exchange for dropping a lawsuit. The range is now owned by Spielvogel's wife, said Nenno. As for Monday's lawsuit, Nenno said there was nothing the range could have done to stop Tomesak-Anderson from shooting herself. "If someone comes here with intent to do it, they're going to do it," said Nenno.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
|
