NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio — Nearly four months after 3-year-old Julian Wood and his mother were stabbed in a Giant Eagle parking lot, his parents want the grocery store held accountable.
The stabbing happened on June 3 in North Olmsted.
Authorities say the suspect, Bionca Ellis, allegedly stole two knives from a nearby thrift store and then walked over to Giant Eagle.
That’s where Ellis allegedly followed Margot Wood and her son to the parking lot and then stabbed the child and his mother.
Charlie Rittgers, the lawyer for the Wood family, says there’s a responsibility that falls on the store.
“They have a duty to protect customers from deranged assailants like this lady, and they knew that it was likely that a deranged assailant, a lone wolf, so to speak, could come into their store,” said Rittgers.
Ellis is facing charges for the attack but has been deemed not mentally fit to stand trial.
RELATED: Bionca Ellis incompetent to stand trial
The Wood family believes what happened to Julian and his mother, Margot, could have been prevented and filed a lawsuit, claiming the stabbing is a direct result of Giant Eagles willful negligence and recklessness.
“This individual store had a murder-suicide just 12 months before Julian lost his life,” said Rittgers.
The lawsuit highlights a pattern of violent incidents at Giant Eagle locations across Ohio, including a shooting in June 2023. It claims that after a gunman killed an employee, Giant Eagle initially deployed armed security at its North Olmsted location but removed the security just months before Wood's stabbing occurred.
“They're placing profits over the individual human beings who are shopping in their store and trusting Giant Eagle that their premises is safe,” said Rittgers.
Surveillance video shows Ellis walking around Giant Eagle carrying a knife beforehand. The lawsuit claims, “if employees had been properly monitoring the surveillance cameras inside the grocery store, its employees would have been able to see Bionca Ellis openly wielding a large knife inside and around the grocery store."
The suit claims the grocery chain failed in a list of ways, including the following:
- To warn guests of a dangerous condition on the premises.
- To alert and protect guests of prior dangerous activities.
- To provide necessary and appropriate security and monitoring of their business premises.
- Failing to prohibit dangerous persons like Ms. Ellis from loitering.
“By law, there's a requirement that you basically take reasonable efforts to maintain a safe premises for those that you actually, actually invite onto your property,” said Eric Chaffee.
Case Western Reserve Law Professor Eric Chaffee told News 5 it's common for a suit to come against a large entity in a case like this.
“So the most complicated thing about this case is that you have what is a horrible, horrible act that almost seems like you couldn't even anticipate it occurring,” said Chaffee.
He adds some cases go to court while others are settled before. The goal with these suits can be two things: money and policy change.
“What it does, is it creates incentives for businesses like Giant Eagle to, in fact, make sure that their premises are safe, that they're well lit, that they have proper security in place to make sure that this type of circumstance does not occur again,” said Chaffee.
The Wood family knows they can't bring their son back, but they want no one to experience the pain they do.
“They really do hope to effectuate change, to make people safer in their community stores, especially these big box stores like Giant Eagle,” said Rittgers.
News 5 reached out to Giant Eagle regarding the case, and they responded with the following:
"Our thoughts continue to be with the Wood family as we cooperate with authorities investigating the tragic and random act of violence. That said, we are unable to comment on pending litigation."
