Q: Can I sue a county jail for negligence in Texas?
The jail was cited 30 days later for leaving 3 doors unsecured which resulted in my son obtaining a jailer’s personal keys and escaping, led police on a chase and ended with police shooting my son in the back and killing him.
A:
Yes, you can sue a county jail in Texas for negligence, but probably not successfully on the facts you describe. Your son's escape and subsequent confrontation with police was most likely the proximate cause of his death and not the negligence of leaving the doors unsecured. Your son's escape, his subsequent acts, and the police's subsequent act of shooting him were almost certainly an intervening, superseding cause of his ultimate death.
If someone had snuck into the jail using one of the unsecured doors and killed your son, you would have a better case, although there are complications suing a county that your attorney would need to overcome.
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