$39.5M verdict awarded to family of victims from 2019 West Philadelphia massacre
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A Philadelphia jury awarded a nearly $40 million verdict in the civil trial over a massacre six years ago where four family members were murdered.
The lawsuit claimed a Texas-based healthcare management company failed to submit paperwork that would have stopped Maurice Louis from buying the shotgun the day before the killings.
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Louis confessed to shooting his mother, stepfather and two half-brothers, ages seven and 18, in their home on the 5000 block of Walton Avenue in West Philadelphia back in October of 2019.
He was 28 at the time.
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Louis had been involuntarily committed to the psychiatric ward at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital, but paperwork was not filed when he was discharged.
Louis was brought back days before the killing, but discharged again without seeing a psychiatrist.
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With the verdict, Horizon Health Management owes $15 million in punitive damages, plus compensatory fines.
Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital had previously settled.
