Family of Man Slain in Rampage Sues State

The family of a man killed during Alan Winterbourne’s murderous rampage at an Oxnard unemployment office has sued the state, claiming lax security contributed to the shooting death of Richard M. Bateman.

Winterbourne shot and killed three people in the Oxnard Employment Development Department office in December 1993. He also shot and killed Oxnard Police Officer James O’Brien before other officers fatally shot Winterbourne.

The family contends that the state’s failure to provide adequate security is partly to blame for Bateman’s death.

“Despite numerous complaints by Oxnard EDD employees prior to the incident,” the lawsuit states, “there were no security guards, no bullet-proof glass, not even a partition to separate workers from people coming into the EDD.”

But before an attorney for Bateman’s wife and three children can argue the case before a jury, a judge must be persuaded to hear the case. The lawsuit was filed more than two years after the shooting, and plaintiffs typically have only one year to file.

The family’s attorneys say their failure to file a timely lawsuit was due to a “reasonable mistake” by a grieving widow and her children.

“Due to the brutal nature of Richard Bateman’s death,” the suit states, the family was “not able to examine and evaluate the cause of Mr. Bateman’s death” until sometime after the shooting.