SEATTLE - A shooting victim alleges the Department of Corrections was negligent and allowed a dangerous man to get and use a gun, saying the shooting put him in the hospital for weeks and now he can't work.
Rey Davis-Bell shot and seriously wounded Yoseb Lee at the Philly Cheesesteak Restaurant in Seattle on January 30th, 2008. Davis-Bell also fatally wounded the restaurant's owner Degene Dashasa.
"I saw his finger, immediately I knew he shot me," says Lee, who had gone into the building to buy his crew some sandwiches. The painter says, a short time after, Davis-Bell attacked. The wound has made it difficult for him to breathe.
" have a lot of pain. The situation is not good, it's hard to breathe," he said.
He and his attorneys now allege in a civil complaint that the State Department of Corrections is partially to blame for the incident. They believe the DOC didn't do enough to keep the violent man, who'd been in and out of state custody, away from weapons and out of trouble.
"The officer who was supervising him was not doing a very good job supervising him," says Lee's attorney James Buckley.
Lee's wife says the injury made it hard for her husband to continue running their painting business and therefore maintain the payments on their home.
"Have to worry about money constantly," says Katherine Lee.
The suit seeks almost $2 million in damages.
A DOC spokesperson says he could not verify the Lee's complaints and that it's common practice not to discuss pending litigation.
A jury convicted Davis-Bell of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder last month.
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