Family of pharmacy resident killed in 2018 Mercy Hospital shooting to receive $20 million settlement

The family of a 24-year-old woman who was killed in a shooting at Mercy Hospital in 2018 will receive $20 million in a wrongful-death settlement.

Dayna Less was stepping off an elevator at Mercy Hospital, now known as Insight Hospital and Medical Center, when she was fatally shot by Juan Lopez on Nov. 19, 2018.

Lopez had entered the hospital moments after confronting and killing his former fiancee, Dr. Tamara O’Neal, in the hospital parking lot.

Lopez also killed Chicago Police Officer Samuel Jimenez before he was gunned down in a shootout with police.

A 12-count suit was filed against the hospital and its hired security company, SDI Security Inc., in November 2019 to hold them accountable for failing to warn and protect Less, a pharmacy resident, after the active shooting began. 

The suit alleged the hospital and SDI failed to follow their own protocols in response to the shooting. The complaint contended the hospital and security firm were negligent in failing to issue a ”Code Silver” alert for an active shooter or implement a lockdown of the building.

According to the suit, the alert would have warned Less about the threat, and the lockdown would have prevented Lopez from re-entering the hospital after shooting O’Neal in the parking lot.

The $20 million settlement set a new record in Illinois for wrongful-death cases involving a decedent who left no dependents.

“The record size of the settlement speaks to how special Dayna was as a person, the unique relationship she had with her parents, Brian and Teena, and the enormity of their loss,” said attorney Mark Dym, of the Chicago law firm Hughes, Socol, Piers, Resnick & Dym, which represented Brian and Teena Less.