The S.C. Supreme Court has affirmed a ruling that extended immunity to a Charleston grocery owner whose nephew shot and killed a man at the store.
The case dates to Sept. 28, 2020 when David J. Wilson, 41, went to Green’s Grocery on President Street to buy a phone charger. Suhib Yousef, 18, was working that early evening when Wilson “feigned an attempt to walk away without paying for the charger.”
The situation quickly grew heated between the two men, and Yousef first retrieved an electronic shock weapon, then a machete, in an attempt to get Wilson to leave the store. It wasn’t until Yousef pulled a gun that Wilson exited the store, according to the Supreme Court’s June 10 opinion.
The conflict between Wilson and Yousef continued with yelling and cussing, and Wilson rushed back into the store toward Yousef. Yousef fired a gun and Wilson was hit twice in the head. He died the next day. The exchange and shooting were captured on the store’s security camera.
Charleston police detectives charged Yousef with murder, but at the conclusion of an immunity hearing in 2021, Circuit Judge R. Markley Dennis ruled Yousef acted lawfully under the state’s Protection for Persons and Property Act.
On behalf of Wilson’s estate, Antoinet Moore filed a civil lawsuit against Green’s Grocery and owner Mahmoud A. Youself, Suhib Yousef’s uncle. The lawsuit alleged negligence and wrongful death.
Circuit Judge George M. McFaddin Jr. later found that the grant of immunity for Suhib Yousef provided his uncle and his business with immunity from civil liability and he dismissed the lawsuit.
“Judge McFaddin ruled extension of immunity to (Yousef’s uncle and Green’s Grocery) was necessary to uphold the General Assembly’s intent that law-abiding persons must be allowed to protect themselves from attackers without fear of criminal prosecution or civil action,” the Supreme Court opinion reads.
Although the Protection of Persons and Property Act doesn’t directly address immunity for third parties, like Mahmoud Yousef and his store, extending the immunity is “entirely consistent with the intent of the General Assembly,” the justices wrote.
The policy promotes the contention that citizens acting lawfully shall be permitted to protect themselves and others without fear, the opinion reads.
Wilson’s estate contended there was another theory of negligence and liability, arguing that Mahmoud Yousef created a dangerous situation by arming his nephew at work, entrusting a firearm to someone inexperienced and without a legal right to possess a firearm.
Additionally the estate argued it was negligent to arm Suhib Yousef when he knew his nephew was “jumpy” and “scared of everyone.”
About two months before the deadly exchange with Wilson, Suhib Yousef was robbed at the store. He struggled with the aftermath of being victimized, the court opinion reads. Mahmoud took his nephew to a therapist and took him to a gun range to learn how to use a gun and he bought a gun for the store.
The Supreme Court ruled those negligence claims also failed because Suhib Yousef’s conduct was not criminal or wrongful in any respect. If there was no wrongful conduct, there was no negligence, the justices determined.
Dining and Cooking