5 lawsuits representing at least 450 victims in Las Vegas mass shooting filed in LA
CENTURY CITY, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Five lawsuits, with one representing up to 450 victims in the Las Vegas mass shooting, were filed in Los Angeles Monday.
The lawyers said the five lawsuits consist of at least two death cases, one catastrophic injury case and one mass tort lawsuit that involves 450 victims who were shot, trampled or suffer from PTSD. The suits were filed against MGM Grand Resorts, which owns the Mandalay Bay hotel, Live Nation and CSC security.
On Oct. 1, a gunman named Stephen Paddock opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel on thousands of people attending the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas. He killed 58 people, many of whom were from Southern California, and injured nearly 500 before turning the gun on himself.
The lawsuits claim that MGM and Live Nation ignored safety protocols, which put thousands of concertgoers at risk.
"What we're going to show in this case is that the defendants did not keep people safe. The security was an utter failure," said Chad Pinkerton, attorney of Pinkerton Law Firm.
According to the attorneys, MGM and Mandalay Bay broke those protocols when the entities failed to stop Paddock from bringing weapons into the hotel, allowed him access to a freight elevator and waited too long to call 911 after the first shots rang out.
"There was a six minute-plus delay. There was a decision made not to make that phone call to 911 immediately," Pinkerton said.
One of the victims in the lawsuits was working at the event. It was her duty to usher concertgoers in and out of the venue.
"She was never told what the security plan or emergency response plan would be," attorney Michelle Simpson Tuegal said.
The attorneys said that Live Nation did not appear to have properly marked exit signs, that some exits were blocked and some areas that were just entrances would not allow people to go out that way. The chaos at these areas caused concertgoers to head back in the direction of the gunshots to find another way out, according to the attorneys.
"There was no clearly marked exit signs for people to leave. The exits that were there, some of them were actual exits, but they were blocked off," attorney Muhammad Aziz said.
No specific amounts are outlined in the lawsuits, but the attorneys said $1 billion wouldn't be too much. But they said the bigger win would be to make large public events safer in the future.
"If we're not prepared to make changes and protect people better, we're going to continue to see this," Pinkerton said.
MGM Grand Resorts provided Eyewitness News with the following statement regarding the lawsuits.
Live Nation also provided Eyewitness News with a statement:
The estate of Paddock is also named in the lawsuits. It has been named in other lawsuits as well.
