Samantha Malone
The family of an Uber driver who was stabbed to death by a young girl is seeking justice by suing Walmart, where authorities say the perpetrator stole the knife and machete used to kill the man just moments before his death.
On May 30, Uber driver Grant Nelson was hacked and stabbed to death.
16-year-old Eliza Wasni is believed to be responsible.
Authorities say Wasni stole the murder weapons from Walmart at around 3:00 a.m. the morning before her attack.
On Monday, the Nelson family took matters into their own hands, filing suit in Cook County Court against Walmart and two companies that handled security for the store, all located in Skokie.
The wrongful death lawsuit claims Walmart’s security companies were negligent, as they failed to stop Wasni and question her, in addition to failing to ask her to show a receipt as she walked out of the store with the weapons.
According to the report, Wasni walked past at least two Walmart employees as she stole the machete and knife, coming within feet of them.
After being fatally stabbed in his vehicle, Nelson, a 34-year-old Wilmette resident, managed to make it from his car to a nearby condo building, where he pressed the door buzzer, pleading for help as he bled to death.
Nelson family attorney Robert Bingle told the Tribune the suit was filed as a means to preserve and further examine the evidence, which includes surveillance video of Wasni leaving the store.
“We feel strongly that Walmart had an obligation to stop this young person at 3:00 in the morning, who had been walking around in their store with an 18-inch machete and 5-inch hunting knife and did not purchase them,” Bingle said in an interview with the Tribune. “It doesn’t take much to figure out that someone leaving [the store] at 3:00 in the morning, and leaving without a receipt with a machete and knife, is not going to be up to anything good.”
Wasni is being charged as an adult with first-degree murder and is being held without bond in a juvenile detention facility awaiting trial.
According to a statement released by the megastore, Walmart believes its employees acted responsibly, and it do not feel as though they are at fault for any part of the incident.
