In the summer of 2022, a day of ordinary errands at the Greenwood Park Mall turned into a scene of tragedy and loss. On the afternoon of Sunday, July 17, Victor Jesus Gomez, a 30-year-old man from Indianapolis, was fatally shot while at the shopping center. Born in Alachua County, Florida, Gomez was a 2010 graduate of Perry Meridian High School and the owner of Tru Marble and Granite LLC in Indianapolis.
He was a husband and a father to three children.
The shooting rampage was carried out by 20-year-old Jonathan Douglas Sapirman, who entered the mall's food court armed with a semi-automatic rifle. Without warning, he opened fire, killing Gomez and two other individuals, Pedro Pineda and Rosa Mirian Rivera de Pineda. The attack was brought to a swift end when an armed bystander, Elisjsha Dicken, confronted Sapirman and fatally shot him within 15 seconds of the violence erupting, an act that likely prevented further casualties.
The investigation that followed the tragic event revealed that the shooter had spent over an hour in a mall restroom before emerging to begin his assault. Authorities later recovered his phone from a toilet in the restroom. While the motive behind Sapirman's violent actions remains unclear, the incident left the Greenwood community in mourning for the lives senselessly taken.
In the wake of the shooting, there have been no arrests, as the sole perpetrator was killed at the scene. However, the family of Victor Gomez has since filed a lawsuit against the mall's owner, Simon Property Group, and the contracted security firm, Allied Universal Security Services. The lawsuit alleges negligence in their security measures, citing a failure to have a security guard present in the food court and inadequate surveillance procedures, which they contend could have potentially deterred or prevented the tragic shooting. The lawsuit seeks a jury trial to address claims of wrongful death and gross negligence.
