On the evening of January 15, 2014, Rachelle Lee Godfread, a 44-year-old woman, was tragically killed in a shooting at a Martin's Supermarket in Elkhart, Indiana. A man named Shawn Bair had been walking around the store for about 40 minutes before he opened fire.
Bair first shot and killed a store employee, Krystle Dikes. Just 64 seconds later, he shot and killed Godfread, who was a customer at the supermarket. After the two fatal shootings, as Elkhart Police were responding to the scene, Bair turned the gun on himself and took his own life.
In the aftermath of the tragic event, the estate of Rachelle Godfread filed a lawsuit against Martin's Supermarkets in January 2016. The lawsuit alleged that the supermarket was negligent and had failed to protect Godfread from the active shooter. The case went to a St. Joseph County judge who, in June 2018, ruled in favor of Martin's Supermarkets, stating that the store had no duty to protect Godfread from being shot.
