21-Year-Old Las Vegas Shooting Victim Sues Mandalay Bay

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Summary: A 21-year-old victim of the Las Vegas shooter has filed the first lawsuit against the Mandalay Bay Resort.

A survivor of the Las Vegas Shooting is suing the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino for negligence. She is also suing Live Nation, the company that organized the concert where she was shot in the chest, and Stephen Paddock’s estate.

  

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On Sunday, October 1, Paige Gasper, 21, was enjoying a concert by country music star Jason Aldean when Stephen Paddock, 64, used automatic weapons to shoot into the crowd of 22,000 people. From his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay, Paddock killed 59 and injured over 500, including Gasper.

In the lawsuit filed Monday, Gasper said that Mandalay Bay and its parent company MGM Resorts International failed to take precaution against the shooter who had stockpiled nineteen guns in his room. She said that employees were also not trained to notice and report suspicious activity.

Gasper is also suing Live Nation Entertainment for organizing the music festival that she attended and Slide Fire Solutions LP which manufacture the bump stocks that Paddock had used to turn his guns into semiautomatic weapons.

Gasper named Stephen Paddock’s estate as a defendant. The Las Vegas shooter had killed himself in his hotel room before police arrived. The investigation is still ongoing on the motive of the reported millionaire accountant-turned-domestic terrorist.

In her lawsuit, Gasper said that the bullet shattered her ribs and lacerated her liver. After she was shot, she fell to the ground where the crowd trampled her.

“At all relevant times, Defendants MGM, and/or Mandalay Corp … knew or should have known that it was reasonably foreseeable that a breach of their duties to keep their premises reasonably safe in the aforementioned manner might result in catastrophic injury perpetrated by a gun-toting guest with an extreme intention to harm others,” the complaint obtained by Business Insider said.

A spokesperson for MGM Resorts said that Paddock’s action was “meticulously planned” and that they were working with law enforcement.

“The tragic incident that took place on October 1st was a meticulously planned, evil, senseless act,” an MGM Resorts spokeswoman, Debra DeShong, told Business Insider. “As our company and city work through the healing process, our primary focus and concern is taking actions to support the victims and their families, our guests and employees, and cooperating with law enforcement. Out of respect for the victims, we are not going to try this case in the public domain, and we will give our response through the appropriate legal channels.”

Gasper is seeking $15,000 in damages, and this is the first reported lawsuit against Mandalay Bay since the tragedy. Legal experts had previously told Business Insider that it was unlikely that victims would hold the Mandalay Bay accountable and that the merit of the lawsuit would depend on a variety of factors. For instance, a recent report in The Los Angeles Times said that a security guard had notified the hotel about Paddock’s weapons before the attack, but the hotel said this was not true.

In a press conference covered by ABC News, Gasper’s mother Heather Selken said that there need to be improvements to safety.

“We are certain that the change for safety needs to happen to honor those lives lost and those that are forever changed,” Selken said. “Our driving force is wanting change in practices and security. When we buy a ticket to an event, we need to know our safety is considered and protected.”

• Las Vegas Shooter Looked at Hotel Rooms Overlooking Lollapalooza 
• Las Vegas Shooter Sued Casino in 2012 
• Las Vegas Shooting Not Related to International Terror 

What do you think of Gasper’s lawsuit? Let us know in the comments below.