A New Haven man was sentenced this week to nearly three decades in federal prison for a string of armed gas station robberies committed in the chaotic first weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic. As a personal injury attorney, the criminal sentence is only part of the story I think about. The other part is the people on the other side of that silver pistol — the clerks working alone behind a counter — and the broader question of who is responsible for keeping employees and customers safe from foreseeable violence. Here’s the case, and the safety conversation it should start.

What Happened

David X. Sullivan, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that William Rosario Lopez, 40, of New Haven, was sentenced to 348 months — 29 years — in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for a series of armed robberies of Connecticut gas stations in March 2020.

According to evidence presented at trial, the robberies followed a chilling pattern over the course of about a week:

• March 18, 2020 — Vernon (Shell, 1302 Hartford Turnpike): Wearing a black mask, he pointed a small silver pistol at a store employee, grabbed him by the collar, and struck him in the back of the head while marching him to the register before fleeing with cash.
• March 22, 2020 — Southington (Fleet, 1611 Meriden Waterbury Turnpike): He pointed a silver pistol at an employee, and when told the money was in a safe the clerk couldn’t open, kicked the employee and ordered him to the floor.
• March 22, 2020 — Waterbury (Shell, 883 Hamilton Avenue): About an hour after Southington, he robbed another clerk at gunpoint.
• March 23, 2020 — Ansonia (Shell, 696 Main Street): When the employee couldn’t open the register fast enough, he fired one round in the employee’s direction. The employee was not struck.
• March 26, 2020 — New Britain (Citgo, 788 West Main Street): He waited for another customer to leave, then robbed the clerk at gunpoint.

Rosario Lopez was arrested on April 9, 2020. Investigators recovered a silver .25 caliber semiautomatic pistol and 14 rounds of ammunition from the vehicle used in the robberies. A jury convicted him in April 2025 of four counts of Hobbs Act robbery, one count of attempted Hobbs Act robbery, four counts of brandishing a firearm during a robbery, and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. His record included prior convictions in New York and Puerto Rico for offenses including attempted murder and aggravated assault with a firearm.

The case was investigated by the FBI, the Connecticut State Police, and police departments across the affected towns.

My Take: The Sentence Closes One Chapter — But What About the Clerks?

A 29-year sentence is a serious response to serious crimes, and the federal prosecutors and investigators deserve credit for the work. But I want to focus on the people who are almost an afterthought in the press release: the gas station employees who were grabbed, struck in the head, kicked, and in one case shot at. Those workers went to work during a frightening, uncertain time and faced a gun. Even when no one is hit by a bullet, that is real harm — and it raises questions that the criminal case doesn’t answer.

Surviving physically isn’t the same as being unharmed. The clerk in Ansonia had a round fired in his direction. The clerk in Vernon was struck in the head. None were reported with gunshot wounds, but the trauma of an armed robbery is well-documented and lasting: PTSD, anxiety, an inability to return to that kind of work, lost income. I never want a “no one was seriously hurt” framing to erase what these workers actually went through.

Workers’ compensation usually covers on-the-job injuries — including psychological trauma. An employee assaulted at work is typically eligible for workers’ compensation, which can cover medical and psychological treatment and lost wages, generally without having to prove the employer did anything wrong. In Connecticut, mental-health claims tied to a violent workplace event are an evolving and important area. Any worker hurt in an incident like this should understand that this benefit may exist for them.

Negligent security is the harder, more important question. Here’s the civil angle that matters most. When a business — a gas station, a convenience store, a parking garage, an apartment complex — knows or should know that violent crime is foreseeable, the law can require it to take reasonable security measures: working cameras, adequate lighting, secure cash-handling, not leaving a single employee alone late at night in a high-risk location, and so on. When a business ignores known risks and a worker or customer is harmed as a result, that can support a negligent security claim against the property owner or operator — a claim that is separate from anything the robber faces. A robber who’s in prison and has no assets can’t compensate a victim; a business that failed to provide reasonable safety often can.

Foreseeability is the key. This spree hit five stations across multiple towns in about a week. After the first robberies were publicized, the risk to similar businesses became increasingly foreseeable. That’s exactly the kind of fact pattern a negligent security analysis examines: did the business know about the pattern, and did it do anything reasonable to protect its people?

Crime Victims Have Rights — and Options

I want gas station and convenience store workers, in particular, to know a few things:

1. You may be a “crime victim” with specific rights, including potential eligibility for state victim compensation funds that can help with medical bills, counseling, and lost wages.
2. Workers’ compensation may cover both physical and psychological injuries from a workplace assault.
3. A negligent security claim against the property owner may be available if inadequate safety measures contributed to your harm — this is separate from the criminal case and from workers’ comp.
4. Document everything: the incident, your injuries (including emotional and psychological symptoms), medical and counseling visits, and any prior incidents at that location.
5. Deadlines matter. Both workers’ comp and civil claims have time limits, so it’s worth understanding your options sooner rather than later.

The criminal justice system has done its job here, and a dangerous man is off the street for a long time. But putting the robber in prison doesn’t pay a traumatized worker’s counseling bills or replace the income they lost because they couldn’t go back behind that counter. Those are civil questions — and they deserve to be asked.

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