Negligence Suits Filed In Killing

October 21, 2006 - Source: Jonathan D. Jones, Staff Writer

GREENSBORO - Idrissa Salifou was unloading groceries late one evening two years ago in the parking lot adjacent to his Burlingate Drive apartment when someone shot him.

The 44-year-old Nigerian immigrant, who worked two low-wage jobs to support his wife and two sons, died at the scene.

It didn't have to happen, said the attorney for Salifou's widow. Several times in the weeks leading up to his Oct. 16, 2004, death, Salifou complained to the management about how dark the parking lot was and how unsafe he thought it was given the amount of criminal activity in the area, said the attorney, Jeffrey Peraldo.

This month Peraldo filed two lawsuits on behalf of Salifou's widow, Fatoumata Idrissa, against Phillips Management Group, which manages the complex, and G Partnership and its three owners.

In the suits, Idrissa is arguing that the companies were negligent in how well they kept the parking lot lit.

Renita Garner, the manager at the McDonald's where Salifou worked, also contacted the apartment management about the problem, Peraldo said. Garner was close to Salifou's family and is the godmother to one of his children. She was concerned that his limited English might have kept the message from getting across.

The second time Garner spoke with the apartment manager, a few weeks before Salifou's death, a promise was made to install another light in the parking lot near his apartment, Peraldo said.

"The security expert we hired identified Colonial Apartments as an 'extremely high crime area for crimes against persons,' " Peraldo said. He cited several robberies of people in the six months prior and a nearby shooting.

Representatives of Phillips Management Group declined to comment, but its attorney, Dan Hartzog, said the case would be difficult to prove.

"This is a civil action trying to hold a landowner responsible for a criminal act by a third party," Hartzog said. "The law, rightfully so, makes it difficult to prove the landowner could have foreseen this action. And the burden of showing lack of foresight falls on (Peraldo)."

The civil case is complicated by the status of the criminal investigation into Salifou's killing. Greensboro police have not made an arrest in Salifou's death, and the investigation is ongoing. That makes the department's records on the case largely inaccessible.

"Crimes of this type are always gruesome," Hartzog said. "It's not a problem showing a crime occurred. Showing the property owner was legally responsible is another thing."

Hartzog said crime statistics can be deceiving in an urban area. With density of people comes crime. There were no other killings in the neighborhood in the same six-month period before Salifou's death that Peraldo cited.

Crime-scene photographs from that night show that it was dark in the parking lot. High-powered portable lights used by police can be seen sitting on the ground in the parking lot. In the distance is a streetlight.

Shortly after the homicide a new light pole was installed in the parking lot, Peraldo said.

Idrissa is seeking more than $60,000 in liability and punitive damages.

"He was just a hard working father of two children doing two jobs to take care of his family," Peraldo said.

* An attorney for an apartment complex says it will be difficult for the plaintiff to prove a lack of foresight contributed to the death.


Copyright (c) 2006 Greensboro News & Record

All rights reserved. No part of this story may be sold, published or included in any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher.

« Back to Newspaper Articles