In October, Bruce Reese walked into his local Aldi in Lauderdale Lakes with his dog on a leash, just as he had done many times before. But this time, another man yelled at him for bringing the pet inside the store and soon punched him in the face, Broward deputies said.<\/p>\n
Reese, knocked unconscious, landed on his head, went into a weeks-long coma and suffered a severe brain injury that his family says has robbed him of his independence.<\/p>\n
Now, Reese is suing the man accused of punching him, and also Aldi and the security guard company the grocery store hired.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit filed in Broward County Circuit Court on Wednesday alleges that Aldi\u2019s employees and security guard didn\u2019t intervene before Reese was attacked. Reese, 60, is seeking $30 million in damages, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
But the case is more than just about money, said Justin Shapiro, Reese\u2019s attorney. He said his client lost his quality of life, his ability to run his tow truck business \u2014 and that now his three adult children are his caretakers.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s incapable of living anything close to a normal, independent life. He has severe cognitive impairment. He struggles with everything from simple problem-solving to normal activities, like dressing and bathing. … He now needs his children to essentially supervise him and help him through his most basic tasks,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cThis crime was entirely preventable had Aldi shown even the most basic effort to protect its customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aldi and DF Security, the company Aldi contracted for the store\u2019s security guard, didn\u2019t respond to emails requesting comment.<\/p>\n
Dandrea Johnson, the man accused of punching Reese, was arrested weeks after the incident and charged with felony battery, while Reese was still in a coma. The attorney representing Johnson in his criminal case declined to comment. Johnson has pleaded not guilty in that case.<\/p>\n
The civil lawsuit details a laundry list of both companies\u2019 alleged failures in keeping its customers safe from dangerous people and crime, especially considering the \u201chigh-crime nature\u201d of the store\u2019s location.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit alleges that Aldi employees at the store, 3301 N. State Road 7, were aware of Johnson\u2019s \u201cunruly, aggressive, and dangerous propensities\u201d because of previous altercations that happened at the store. The lawsuit also says that police have responded to over 5,600 calls for service to the area surrounding the Aldi in the past five years. In that same time period, law enforcement had been dispatched to that Aldi store 76 times in response to shootings, armed robbery, assault, burglary and other alleged crimes.<\/p>\n
Because of that, Shapiro argues that Aldi and DF Security were negligent in taking the proper security measures to prevent incidents like Reese\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking for accountability on the part of Aldi, because they have still accepted no responsibility and no accountability for this,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking to make sure that this doesn\u2019t happen again at this Aldi, at any other Aldi grocery store.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the attack on Oct. 11, 2025, Reese was independent, funny, friendly and vivacious, said his son Brandon Reese, 36. He loved working on classic cars, riding motorcycles and running his own tow truck business<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing the patriarch now of this family and being there for my sisters and helping them make sense of all this,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a burden and exhaustion I feel every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reese took his dog Prince everywhere with him. Prince would ride shotgun in Reese\u2019s truck all day, Brandon said. And, of course, Reese took Prince with him to run errands, like grocery shopping. Reese, who has lived in Lauderdale Lakes for about five years, and Prince had gone to that Aldi location many times without any issues, Shapiro said.<\/p>\n
According to the lawsuit, Reese and Prince walked into Aldi when Johnson began to berate him about bringing the dog into the store. Johnson was accused of following Reese around the store, yelling loudly and becoming more aggressive, according to the suit.<\/p>\n
After a few moments, the lawsuit says, Johnson walked out of the store and waited by the entrance for Reese to leave. When he did, Reese was \u201cambushed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn plain sight of ALDI\u2019s sole security guard, Defendant JOHNSON sucker punched Plaintiff BRUCE REESE on the chin with a closed fist, instantly knocking him unconscious on his feet,\u201d the lawsuit reads.<\/p>\n
Store surveillance footage shows a man punch Reese as he and other customers were walking out of the door. Reese immediately fell back into the store, and Prince walked over to stand next to him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In October, Bruce Reese walked into his local Aldi in Lauderdale Lakes with his dog on a leash,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5289,96548,96549,95376,96550,28,30,29,96547,45544],"class_list":["post-210843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-aldi","tag-brandon-reese","tag-broward-county-circuit-court","tag-bruce-reese","tag-dandrea-johnson","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-justin-shapiro","tag-security-guard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}