The shooting death of an employee at Lowe’s in Scranton in June was “entirely preventable,” but store managers ignored the shooter’s escalating and “deep personal animosity” toward the victim for more than a year, a lawsuit alleges.
The suit filed by Keisha Moeller, the widow of shooting victim Jeffrey Moeller, accuses Lowe’s of “negligence and recklessness” for failing to protect her husband from fellow employee Christopher M. Wasnetsky.
“Lowe’s could have, and should have, prevented Mr. Moeller’s death by simply ensuring that Mr. Wasnetsky would not encounter Mr. Moeller on its premises, by ... separating them on different shifts or at different stores, or by termination of employment,” Keisha Moeller’s lawyers Joel Feller and Scott S. Berger Jr. of Ross Feller Casey LLP wrote in the suit.
The suit was filed Monday in Lackawanna County Court. It seeks more than $50,000 in damages for Keisha Moeller and the Moellers' three daughters.
A Lowe's spokesman offered no comment on the lawsuit.
"The safety of our associates and customers is our top priority, and we are deeply saddened by this senseless act of violence. Lowe’s takes all safety concerns seriously and has been fully cooperating with local law enforcement in their investigation," the spokesman said.
Wasnetsky charged with murder
Police charged Wasnetsky with murder in the first degree. He remains in the Lackawanna County Prison awaiting trial in county court.
Wasnetsky, 36, who lived in Dalton, called 911 to report shooting Moeller early on the morning of June 14, according to an arrest affidavit.
"I would like to report a shooting at the ... Lowe's. I was the person that did it," Wasnetsky said.
Wasnetsky told police he bought a handgun a week earlier to shooting Moeller, claiming Moeller harassed him for months. He shot Moeller in the chest without warning and then twice more times in the head when Moeller asked for help so he wouldn’t suffer, according to the arrest affidavit.
“He unloaded the handgun which he left by the shopping cart he uses,” city Detective Michael Schultz wrote in the affidavit. “He said he walked out the front door and was taken into custody.”
A 'personal vendetta'
Moeller, 44, repeatedly warned Lowe’s managers that Wasnetsky had a “personal vendetta” against him, Wasnetsky’s anger kept growing and “he needed to be kept away from Mr. Moeller,” the suit says.
It's an issue his sister, Christina Moeller, also raised in a GoFundMe post days after his death, when she said Moeller had complained to Lowe's human resources about 'troubling comments' directed at him by Wasnetsky, but "nothing was done."
The suit alleges Wasnetsky admitted his anger toward Moller.
“Mr. Wasnetsky told Lowe’s management that he was so angry at Mr. Moeller that he was ‘physically shaking with anger,’ that he ‘couldn’t sleep ... because he was making me so angry, that the personal animosity he had for Mr. Moeller was ‘starting to affect my mental health,’ and that he had ‘to not be around him (Moeller) for my own mental health,’” the suit alleges.
Before the shooting, store management “acknowledged and understood that something needed to be done to protect the safety and wellbeing of Mr. Moeller,” the suit says.
“Lowe’s egregiously ignored the danger posed to Mr. Moeller, recklessly gave Mr. Wasnetsky unfettered access to Mr. Moeller, failed to supervise Mr. Wasnetsky, failed to adequately protect Mr. Moeller, failed to secure its store and create an unsafe and hostile environment for Mr. Moeller that resulted in his horrific and painful death.”
Suit: Wasnetsky emailed Lowe's
Before shooting Moeller, Wasnetsky emailed Lowe’s. The email said Lowe’s “could have prevented Mr. Moeller’s killing,” the suit says. It does not indicate how long before the shooting the email was sent.
“On that single narrow point, Mr. Wasnetsky was correct,” Berger and Feller wrote in the suit.
The animosity stretched back to at least July 2024 when Moeller reported Wasnetsky “angrily screaming at him.” He told managers he had enough personal problems and because of “Wasnetsky’s attacks, his stress and anxiety had been ‘through the roof.’”
In January, Wasnetsky began complaining about Moeller, according to the suit, calling him “a terrible person” who “lost his chance” and asking for Moeller’s firing, according to the suit.
The suit says Wasnetsky “fabricated personal grievances” against Moeller. He claimed Moeller went through his belongings and took things, hid keys for power equipment, parked forklifts to block him from moving through the store and changed the font size on his compute to annoy him.
“Lowe’s determined that none of these, and other of Mr. Wasnetsky’s grievances, had merit,” the suit says.
Reasons for hate unknown
In later conversations, Moeller told managers that Wasnetsky was consumed by his behavior and once drove a forklift dangerously close to him, the suit says.
“I still to this day don’t know what the hell I did to make him despise me,” Moeller told a manager.
In March, Moeller emailed managers to express “deep concern” and “serious safety concerns” about Wasnetsky posing “a significant risk to himself and others.”
In May, managers reassured him that Wasnetsky was not a danger.
“Mr. Moeller would not have continued to work at Scranton Lowe’s had he been told the truth and not had his safety mispresented by Lowe’s management,” the suit says.
Waiting for the day
Wasnetsky bought a 9mm handgun June 9, began practicing shooting in his back yard and took it to work with him for several days before the shooting, “waiting for Mr. Moeller to be on shift,” according to the suit.
According to the police affidavit, police said Wasnetsky told them he bought a handgun the week before the killing with the intention of shooting Moeller, who he claimed had been harassing him for months.
On June 14, as Moeller drove a forklift, “Wasnetsky pushed his shopping cart up to (the) forklift, reached into the shopping cart and pulled out the 9mm handgun,” the suit states. “Without saying a word, Mr. Wasnetsky walked up to within five feet of Mr. Moeller and opened fire, shooting Mr. Moeller in the chest.”
Police said they reviewed surveillance footage that shows Moeller moving items with a forklift when Wasnetsky approached him, pushing a shopping cart. Wasnetsky can be seen shooting Moeller from about five feet away. When Moeller falls, Wasnetsky continues to shoot as Moeller is still moving around on the floor.
The video then shows Wasnetsky get very close to Moeller and shoot him in the head, after which Moeller stops moving, the affidavit says.
