Police officer sued over fatal shooting in Memorial

A family is suing over claims a drunken police officer shot and killed their loved one as he helped a woman defend herself in the parking lot of a Memorial bar.

Rosa Rodriguez, individually and on behalf of Omar Wilfredo Ventura’s estate, and Rolando Ventura filed a lawsuit on Feb. 14 in Harris County District Court against the city of Houston and Jose Coronado, and Sherlock’s Baker Street Pub in Memorial, citing negligence and gross negligence, among other things.

Rodriguez says in the early hours of Feb. 19, 2011, Coronado, an allegedly intoxicated Houston police officer, fatally shot Omar in the parking lot of Sherlock’s Baker Street Pub. According to the brief, Omar and his brother Rolando intervened when they witnessed a customer of the bar harassing and threatening a woman as he followed her through the parking lot to her truck.

The suit alleges when Coronado exited the bar, after an alleged night of drinking, he saw the brothers arguing with the woman’s attacker, pulled out his gun and shot them.
 
Omar died later that morning.

The plaintiffs are seeking damages, attorney’s fees and court costs. They are being represented in the case by Houston attorneys Sean Greenwood and Ryan Bormaster.

Harris County District Court Case No. 2012-08835.

This is a report on a civil lawsuit filed at the Harris County Courthouse. The details in this report come from an original complaint filed by a plaintiff. Please note, a complaint represents an accusation by a private individual, not the government. It is not an indication of guilt, and it only represents one side of the story.