Columbus family calling for answers after deadly grocery store shooting

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — A Columbus mother is still searching for answers months after her son was shot and killed by a security guard at a west side grocery store.

Loved ones have filed a lawsuit against the grocery chain and the man who pulled the trigger. They told ABC 6 that the entire incident could have been avoided.

"Disbelief, it's heartbreaking," Charlee Cooper. said. "I couldn't believe it. It's torture. It's torturing me every day, to be honest with you."

For the first time, ABC 6 is hearing from the family of Paris Royal. The 26-year-old was shot and killed inside of a west Columbus Kroger in the process of a fight with a security guard.

Loved ones told ABC 6 that the altercation should have never led to his death.

"It's just heartbreaking," Cooper said. "I just really planned on doing so much with him. Building so much with him."

Cooper told ABC 6 that she has countless questions which she said have gone unanswered since the January death of her son.

"I was just really excited about what he was going to do and the possibilities, and he was just taken away, like, so fast. In a matter of minutes," she said.

Investigators indicate a security guard and a customer were in an altercation. During that fight, the woman’s boyfriend, Paris Royal, entered the store. Investigators indicated that Royal also started to go back and forth with the security guard and shots were fired.

Royal died at the scene.

"it's terrible every day," Cooper said.

"I didn't even get to see my son when it happened," father Calvin Royal said. "By the time I got to the hospital, he was already deceased. I didn't get to see his body or nothing. So I was devastated."

The family of Paris Royal has filed a lawsuit against Kroger, the security guard, and the company he was working for at the time.

The lawsuit indicates there was "unreasonable use of deadly force." The family and their attorney stress the armed guard should have diffused the situation.

"I was crushed," Royal said. That was my only son and I just couldn't believe it. It's a pain I thought I would never have to go through. Not in my wildest dreams I thought I would experience something like this."

The family and their attorney are also pushing for the full release of store security video of the incident.

"Transparency promotes trust, and in this case, there's no transparency, and there's no trust," family attorney Chanda Brown said.

"I have to just keep going. It's not easy. That's my only son," Cooper told ABC 6.

At this point, charges have not been filed against that security guard. The civil case is moving forward.

ABC 6 reached out to Kroger for a statement. A spokesperson told ABC 6 the company does not comment on pending litigation.