The insurance carrier for the town of Elon is suing the town and one of its police officers in order to avoid having to pay more than $75,000 in damages over the accidental, self-inflicted fatal shooting of three-year-old child in June 2021.
The Texas-based U.S. Specialty Insurance Company (USSIC) filed suit in late 2023 seeking a judgment declaring that the insurer isn’t liable for paying more than $75,000 in damages to the estate of three-year-old Camden Maynard, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in June 2021.
The town’s insurer insists that it has no duty to indemnify the town of Elon or its police officer, Orlando Maynard – whose three-year-old son died of the accidental, self-inflicted gunshot – against a separate wrongful death suit filed by the child’s estate.
According to the case background, the victim, Camden Maynard, got hold of his father’s service weapon, a .34 Glock pistol that the Elon police department had issued to his father, Orlando Maynard, and accidentally shot himself. Orlando Maynard had left the handgun at home, with a bullet in the chamber and 16 rounds in the magazine, when he left for work on June 16, 2021, according to the federal court files.
USSIC asserts under multiple counts outlined in its federal suit that the town’s policy “applies to bodily injury” and “property damage” only if the injury or damage is “caused by an occurrence arising out of your operations that takes place in the ‘coverage territory,’” according to a complaint the insurer filed in federal court in December 2023. “The [lawsuit] involves the self-inflicted shooting of three-year-old Camden Maynard in his home and does not arise out of the Town’s operations.”
Nor did the injury arise out of the town’s law enforcement activities, as specified under a separate provision of the town’s insurance policy, according to the insurer’s suit. “The lawsuit involves the self-inflicted shooting…which was not caused by a ‘law enforcement wrongful act’ arising out of the course and scope of ‘law enforcement activities,’” the amended complaint asserts.
The insurance company repeatedly contends that Orlando Maynard had not been acting within the scope of employment or performing duties related his position as an employee of the town at the time of the shooting and that USSIC has no duty to indemnify him against the estate’s lawsuit.
While the USSIC denies that it owes insurance coverage to the town for the fatal shooting, the company has nonetheless agreed to pay attorney’s fees for the town and Orlando Maynard to defend themselves against the lawsuit filed by the administrator for Camden Maynard’s suit.
Last month, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina granted a motion to stay the insurer’s suit, giving each of the parties an additional 60 days to decide how the litigation should proceed.
Brooke Olivia Hill – who is indentified in federal court files as the administrator for Camden Maynard’s suit and is also a defendant to the insurer’s lawsuit – had filed a wrongful death suit against the town and Orlando Maynard in June 2023, seeking more than $75,000 in damages under four alleged claims for relief.
In her suit, Hill contends that Orlando Maynard had improperly stored his service weapon at his home where his three-year-old son, Camden, could access it; and on June 16, 2021, the child accessed the loaded gun, accidentally shooting himself in the head.
The administrator for Camden Maynard’s estate sought more than $75,000 in damages under multiple alleged causes of action against Orlando Maynard, including: wrongful death; and deprivation of the victim’s rights to equal protection of the laws and due process under the state constitution and the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The administrator for the child’s estate also sought damages against the town of Elon under a
“Monell” claim for allegedly failing to train and supervise its officers on the safe storage of firearms – a lack of training that Hill contends was the cause of Camden Maynard’s death.
Hill also alleged that Orlando Maynard had told her after the shooting that he’d kept his service weapon loaded “because the town, through the police department, had instructed him that his gun was to always stay loaded,” according to the federal court files.
Hill filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, after U.S. federal district court judge William L. Osteen, Jr. dismissed all of her claims against the town of Elon and Orlando Maynard in September 2024.
The town of Elon has asserted in its response to the insurer’s lawsuit that a policy the town had at the time of the shooting had covered damages sought for an “injury” caused by “a law enforcement wrongful act,” such as the one that resulted in the child’s fatal shooting, as well as under multiple other provisions within the town’s policy.
Orlando Maynard was placed on administrative leave from the Elon police department after the shooting, according to news reports that ran at the time.
He subsequently pleaded guilty in Guilford County court, where he was charged because the shooting occurred at his home in Whitsett, in July 2022 of misdemeanor failure to properly secure a firearm to protect a minor. Maynard received 18 months’ of unsupervised probation and was prohibited from owning or possessing a firearm during his probation, according to the Guilford County court file.
Elon police chief Kelly Blackwelder had said at the time that Maynard would continue to be employed with the town, but in a civilian capacity (i.e., not as a sworn officer), multiple media outlets reported.
Orlando Maynard appears to have been reinstated as an officer with the Elon police department following the completion of his court-ordered probation, according to the police department’s staff directory.
Meanwhile, in October 2024, Hill, in her capacity as administrator for Camden Maynard’s estate, filed a separate civil suit in Guilford County superior court against Orlando Maynard, seeking more than $25,000 in damages for alleged negligence in the June 2021 shooting. That suit remains pending in Guilford County.
