Background: Surveillance image from the Aldi store in Lauderdale Lakes, Fla., where a man punched another shopper (Broward County Sheriff”s Office). Inset: Dandrea Johnson (Broward County Sheriff’s Office).
A Florida man who frequented an Aldi grocery store and is accused of sucker-punching another customer was known to store management for being “unruly,” a lawsuit says.
Dandrea Johnson, 45, was charged with felony battery after police said he attacked Bruce Reese near the exit of an Aldi grocery store in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, in October 2025. On Wednesday, months after Johnson was charged, Reese’s family filed a lawsuit in Broward County against Johnson, Aldi, and DF Security LLC, claiming that the store and its security were negligent in preventing the alleged attack on Reese and intervening in it while it was happening.
According to the lawsuit, which was reviewed by Law&Crime, Johnson was a regular customer at the Aldi location where Reese was also a shopper. On the night of Oct. 11, 2025, Reese was at the store with his service dog, and Johnson allegedly confronted Reese about the dog in one of the store’s aisles. The lawsuit stated that Johnson “began verbally harassing Mr. Reese from the moment he entered the store.” The encounter was captured on store surveillance cameras and, according to the lawsuit, in full view of store security guards and employees.
The lawsuit said the verbal altercation “escalated for several minutes in multiple locations throughout the store,” and no Aldi staff members or security guards did anything to intervene or deescalate the situation. One guard, per the lawsuit, “simply stood at his post in silence like a statue.”
After the verbal altercation, Reese left the store with his dog, and Johnson allegedly sucker-punched Reese near the store’s exit, “steps away from Aldi’s security guard.” The lawsuit stated that Reese was “instantly” knocked unconscious and fell to the ground “head-first,” causing a traumatic brain injury that left him in a coma for 20 days. The injuries reportedly left Reese “profoundly brain-damaged and incapable of living a normal, independent life.”
Johnson was reportedly known to the management-level staff at Aldi to be “unruly and aggressive.” The lawsuit also alleged that the Aldi location in Lauderdale Lakes was in a high-crime area, and its “one unarmed security guard” did not meet security industry standards.
Reese’s family is seeking $30 million in damages and a jury trial. No response has been filed by any of the defendants as of Thursday.
Justin Shapiro, the attorney representing Reese and his family, told local Fox and ABC affiliate WSVN, “A large part of what we’re doing here is making sure that Aldi and its contractor learns from the mistakes that it made in this case.”
Law&Crime reached out to Aldi and DF Security for a comment but did not receive an immediate response.
Johnson was charged with felony battery. The next court date in his criminal case is May 8.
