Men sue Target after Pokemon card theft leads to fatal police shooting

Attorneys for men involved in a fatal police shooting over stolen Pokemon cards are suing Target for putting civilians at risk.

Back in 2022, a man was killed by police after two teens were accused of stealing Pokemon cards and pizza from a Florida Target.

Detectives say 19-year-old Joseph Lowe and 18-year-old Michael Gomez were caught putting the items into a backpack. When they left the store, police stopped a car driven by Jayden Baez.

According to Yahoo, deputies say that Baez tried to leave the scene and rammed his car into their vehicles, so they opened fire, ultimately killing him and injuring the others. However, attorneys for the men say Target is to blame for the incident.

Target sued after fatal Pokemon card death

A lawsuit filed by the attorneys alleges that Target carried out a training exercise by using their clients as test subjects.

Mark NeJame took aim at Target, accusing the retailer and its employees of being responsible for Baez’s death.

“By allowing law enforcement to be on their property with their permission and use their customers and civilians as human guinea pigs… I mean, it’s outrageous,” he said.

“This whole travesty, this whole killing, this whole maiming, whole shooting somebody in the back, all occurred because Target allowed them to do this, allowed them to be on the property to conduct training exercises. You don’t do that.”

The attorneys argued that a law enforcement operation should be known to the public, and that not disclosing it put many people in harm’s way.

“It put civilians at risk, it put occupants of the vehicle at risk, it put law enforcement at risk, it’s just completely irresponsible and reckless,” they argued.

Charges against the men for allegedly stealing the Pokemon cards and pizza were dropped after the incident, but it’s clear that this whole ordeal is far from over.