The husband of Anne Sleater, the AT&T employee killed during a January shooting rampage at the Triad Center, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging those who operate the Triad Center failed to provide adequate security.
Christopher Sleater, on behalf of Anne Sleater's estate, filed the suit Tuesday in 3rd District Court against the M&S Triad Center, Maier & Seibel, La Salle and Allied Security.Triad Center and Maier & Sabel are the building's landlords. La Salle is the company that manages the building, and Allied provides building security. The suit is seeking special and general damages to be determined at trial.
"As part of their duties, M&S Triad and Maier & Seibel, and their agents and contractors, including Allied and La Salle, owed a duty to their tenants to have in place an appropriate and reasonable security infrastructure to minimize damage in the event of a threat by an armed intruder," the suit states.
Anne Sleater, 30, died Jan. 22, eight days after being shot in the head in her office on the fourth floor at the Triad Center. She had only recently returned to work as a human resources manager after giving birth six months earlier to the couple's first child -- a daughter named Erin.
Police and prosecutors say De-Kieu Duy, 24, who has a history of mental illness, legally purchased a 9mm handgun from a West Valley gun shop on Jan. 14 and then took a bus to the Triad Center. She entered the lobby at KSL television at about 3 p.m. and allegedly fired numerous shots, injuring KSL building manager Brent Wightman.
Unable to enter KSL's newsroom, Duy then proceeded to other floors, police say, where she later confronted Sleater in her office and shot her in the head. Duy was then wrestled to the ground by Sleater's co-worker Ben Porter.
Duy, who told police she went to the building because she believed someone at KSL was harassing her, was later charged in 3rd District with aggravated murder. However, she was found incompetent to stand trial and was sent to the Utah State Hospital in Provo for treatment. She has a review hearing scheduled for next week.
The suit says before Duy rode the elevator to the fourth floor that she stopped on the second floor and fired 12 more shots into the hallway. On the fourth level, Duy made her way through the AT&T floor, checking doors until she found Sleater in her office with her door open, conducting an orientation with a new employee. Sleater tried to calm Duy, the suit says, but Duy shot her.
Duy was in the building for 20 to 30 minutes before she reached Sleater in her back office on the fourth floor, the suit alleges.
The suit says the landlords should have foreseen criminal activity at the building, including the possibility of an armed intruder. The suit says the Triad Center is located in a high-crime area, that previous acts of violence had occurred on or near the premises and that it is foreseeable that KSL would be a target of angry or disgruntled viewers.
A coordinated emergency plan and protocol should have been in place in the event an armed intruder entered the building, the suit says. The television monitoring system was inadequate and no telephone or intercom system was in place to warn tenants.
"The employees of AT&T had no forewarning that Duy was in the building," according to the suit.
A system should have been in place to shut down the elevators and to lock down stairwells, the suit states. Had a warning and/or lock-down system been in place, Duy would not have reached the fourth floor and Sleater would have had adequate warning to lock her office door.