California College Student Injured in Las Vegas Massacre Files Suit
On October 1, 2017, a gunman opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas strip. The gunman fired hundreds of rifle rounds from his suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel. The shooting left 58 people dead and 546 injured, making it the deadliest mass shooting committed by an individual in the United States. A California college student who was injured at the shooting recently filed suit against the concert promoter, the Mandalay Bay hotel owners, and the bump stock manufacturers. The case may have some relevance to certain California premises liability cases that may arise in these tragic situations.The lawsuit claims that MGM Resorts International, which owns both the hotel and the concert venue, failed to respond in a timely manner to the shooting of a hotel security officer who had gone to the 32nd floor to check on an alert from another guest room and who was shot six minutes before the massacre began. The lawsuit also questions why hotel staff failed to notice the gunman’s behavior prior to the mass shooting.
Specifically, the plaintiff claims that MGM Resorts and concert promoter Live Nation breached their duty of reasonable care and knew or should have known that it was reasonably foreseeable that a breach of their duty to keep the concert venue safe could result in serious or fatal injuries to concert attendees. Specifically, the gunman brought in 10 suitcases of weapons and over 500 rounds, and he barricaded himself in his room without any staff noticing.
The victim was shot in the arm by one of the gunman’s bullets and was thereafter rendered physically incapacitated, resulting in her being trampled by fleeing concertgoers. She was ultimately rescued by a kind stranger and transported to the hospital.
Her lawyer argues Live Nation is also liable for failing to provide concertgoers with an adequate emergency exit. A spokesperson for the concert promoter failed to comment on the lawsuit. A spokesman for MGM said that they would not discuss the case in a public domain out of respect for the victims, and they would respond only to the allegations through the legal system.
The massacre also prompted a class-action lawsuit against the Texas-based company that manufactured the gunman’s bump-stock devices, but this lawsuit is the first to name both the hotel owner and the concert promoter as defendants. Her lawyers claim the case is not about a paycheck but instead about improving security at hotels and venues.
This is not the first concert-related lawsuit filed in recent months. Last month, 23-year-old Kyle Green claimed he was rendered paralyzed after he was pushed off the balcony and dragged onto the stage at rapper Travis Scott’s April concert in Manhattan. Green is suing Scott and his manager, the security company, and the concert promoter for negligence, recklessness, and carelessness. Green is seeking unspecified damages.
Video from the concert at issue shows Scott encouraging fans on the balcony to jump into the crowd below. Green’s lawyer said Green did not jump, but he was pushed as the crowd surged. He suffered fractured vertebrae, a fractured ankle, and a broken wrist.
Scott, the complaint added, had incited mayhem at prior events, including being arrested in May for causing a riot at an Arkansas concert.
The premises liability lawyers at Neumann Law Group represent victims throughout the Los Angeles area. Call us at (213) 227-0001 for a free consultation.
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