State Fair of Texas shooting victim sues suspected shooter, security companies

One of the victims of last year's shooting at the Texas State Fair is suing the suspected shooter and the companies responsible for securing the fair.

Andrea Araujo was working on a cleaning crew at the fair when she was shot Oct. 14, according to the lawsuit. The 41-year-old woman and her husband Pedro Ortega are seeking more than $1 million in damages.

The suit alleges that the Andy Frain Services security checkpoint failed to stop Cameron Turner from entering the fairgrounds with the gun he is accused of using to shoot three people. The couple also alleges that detection devices provided by GXC Inc. failed to detect the weapon on Turner and alert staff.

Attorneys for Andy Frain Services and GXC Inc. could not immediately be reached for comment.

The couple's attorney, Marc Lenahan, said Araujo still had bullet fragments lodged in his body from the shooting. He said the trial was intended to prove that Turner was not the only party at fault.

“Young people fight and young people make bad decisions, and that’s why we paid security to keep the guns away, and they didn’t,” Lenahan said.

Turner is charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of unlawfully carrying a weapon in a prohibited place. His attorney was not immediately available for comment.

State Fair staff said it was not implementing any policy changes in light of the shooting and said it had confidence in its security plans in partnership with the Dallas Police Department.

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