Off-duty deputy files lawsuit against H-E-B after 2022 stabbing in Austin

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A lawsuit filed Wednesday claimed H-E-B has refused to pay medical bills after the stabbing of an off-duty law enforcement official providing security at one of its grocery stores.

The lawsuit said on Nov. 12, 2022, Luke Werner was “violently stabbed in the neck multiple times by a patron of the store," which was located at 2508 East Riverside Drive.

According to lawsuit documents, H-E-B owed Werner a duty to use reasonable care in providing a safe workplace.

“In this lawsuit, Mr. Werner was damaged by the many failures of H-E-B’s employees to prevent an act of violence like this from happening, or at least timely resolving the dangerous condition when it became aware of Jaime Canales’s outburst,” the lawsuit reads.

The law firm representing Werner said despite Werner having been on the clock as an H-E-B employee, H-E-B refused to pay for his medical bills that he incurred because of the attack on H-E-B property that H-E-B staff asked Werner to involve himself in.

The lawsuit said Werner was seeking monetary relief of more than $1 million, including damages of any kind, penalties, court costs, expenses, prejudgment interest and attorney fees.