It’s been almost 5 years since Leslie Woods lost her daughter, Devon Rideout.
“You only see it on TV. And then it really happened. And my daughter really was murdered, you know, and it was an unprovoked murder," Woods said.
Rideout, a 24-year-old Navy corpsman, was walking her puppy after work when Eduardo Arriola ambushed her. Her mom said he shot her five times.
Investigators searched Arriola’s car and found Rideout’s name scrawled in black permanent ink on the car's radiator tank. A list of other names and words was also written on the tank, with the final entry "R.I.P." at the bottom of the list.
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Arriola was Rideout's upstairs neighbor but she did not know him, according to Woods. He was convicted of Rideout's murder and is currently serving a life sentence, but Woods and other family members say the tragedy could've been prevented.
“I love my daughter with all my heart,” Woods said. “She would be alive today if not for the negligence.”
Arriola was a Marine who was discharged for desertion and later diagnosed with schizophrenia, which should have legally barred him from buying a gun.
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Woods is suing the federal government for allegedly failing to list Arriola as a “prohibited person” in their national database. Attorneys say he bought the gun a few weeks before he murdered Rideout.
“What we're asking for is a very basic, simple thing to the federal government,” said one of the family’s attorneys, Grace Jun. “Do your job. Do what the law requires you to do. All of us have to comply with it. So should you.”
The federal government initially moved to dismiss this lawsuit but a U.S. district judge denied that dismissal, breathing new life into the case.
The next steps for this case begin with an assessment in just a few weeks in front of a U.S. magistrate judge, then a discovery phase where evidence is gathered which typically lasts between four and six months. All of that happens before trial, which is expected to begin early next year.
