Aerial view of downtown Atlanta
ATLANTA – A rapper and former college football player can sue the City of Atlanta after he was robbed and shot in Grant Park, a Georgia appeals court has decided.
The Georgia Court of Appeals on Sept. 1 refused to let Atlanta invoke immunity under the Recreational Property Act in a lawsuit brought by Jonathan Querisma, a former defensive back at Troy University who now raps under the name Charisma Mufasa.
While attending a baby shower, he’d set his belongings, which included about $3,000 in cash, down to toss a football with kids when two men with guns demanded the money. This kind of danger at Grant Park was known to Atlanta, his lawsuit says, yet it did nothing to stop it.
Fulton County judge Patsy Porter denied Atlanta’s motion for summary judgment in November, leading to Atlanta asking the Court of Appeals to find it did not act maliciously in failing to guard or warn him. Another exception to immunity is when a landowner charges an individual for recreational use and an injury occurs to “any” individual, and the host of the baby shower paid $330 to rent a room that day.
“The plain language of the statute does not render the City immune simply because Querisma entered the property free of charge, and the City does not argue that his injury occurred outside of any ‘connection’ with the recreational use for which the baby shower’s host was charged,” Judge Ken Hodges wrote.
The shooting occurred Nov. 25, 2018. Querisma had been moving in and out of the baby shower, which was held near a basketball court. He testified that he was throwing a football and playing basketball with kids, though Atlanta insinuated that he’d been playing pickup football for money with other men, including the eventual shooters.
A witness testified “Plaintiff was outperforming the players on the opposite team and, therefore, tempers may have flared,” the City summarized in a trial court brief. When Querisma began to sweat, he took money and other items and wrapped his shirt around them and placed them on the ground.
A fight for the money led to Querisma being shot five times and pistol-whipped. Two years later, Kenneth Atkins and Marcus Battle were arrested and convicted.
The Court of Appeals’ ruling keeps Querisma and Atlanta on track for a November trial, if there is no appeal to the state Supreme Court. His complaint seeks damages for medical expenses and mental and emotional pain and suffering and was filed by Andrew Rogers of Deitch & Rogers.
