Worker’s Family Sues EDD Over Slaying

The family of a man who was killed during a murderous shooting spree at an Oxnard unemployment office refiled a lawsuit against the state of California on Tuesday, alleging that poor security there contributed to his death.

The family of Richard Bateman Sr. sued the California Employment Development Department in April--more than two years after Alan Winterbourne’s 1993 rampage.

But Ventura County Superior Court Judge Barbara A. Lane agreed July 15 to waive the one-year statute of limitations on lawsuits so that Bateman’s family could pursue its claim against the EDD.

The suit alleges that the EDD should have known of the risks of violence on its property after receiving complaints by employees about the lack of security. And it charges that the department failed to install security guards and bulletproof glass in its Oxnard office.

Lack of those safeguards, the suit said, allowed the disgruntled, jobless Winterbourne to walk into the office Dec. 2, 1993, and fatally shoot three employees.

Winterbourne also killed Oxnard Police Officer James O’Brien during a high-speed chase before police shot the gunman to death as he arrived at the EDD’s Ventura office.