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Live Nation among companies sued by Route 91 Harvest victim

By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 13 October 2017

Live Nation is among a number of companies being sued by a woman seriously injured during the attack on the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas earlier this month.

Paige Gasper accuses Live Nation of not adequately building and signposting emergency exits for the festival site, or training staff in how to deal with an emergency situation such as the one that unfolded at the event.

As previously reported, as final night headliner Jason Aldean began his performance a gunman opened fire on the 22,000 strong audience from a room on the 32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel. He killed 58 people, and left 489 injured.

Gasper’s lawsuit says that she was shot through the arm and chest, then trampled by others attempting to escape further gunshots. She was apparently pulled to safety by a “good Samaritan”, before being put in a truck and driven to hospital by a second person.

Also named in the lawsuit is MGM Resorts International, the owner of the Mandalay Bay hotel. The company is liable, says the legal filing, as staff at the hotel did not respond quickly enough to signs that something was untoward – in particular the shooting of a security guard, which police have said happened six minutes before shots were fired on the Route 91 Harvest audience. Failure to notice the gunman carrying weapons into the hotel and setting up security cameras in advance of the attack are also cited as a failing.

Thirdly, the suit names Slide Fire Solutions, a manufacturer of ‘bump stocks’, gun accessories which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire more rapidly, with provisions to add further companies at a later date.

Although the lawsuit seeks damages, lawyers for Gasper insist that the lawsuit is not about money, rather improving safety to prevent similar attacks. Her mother Heather Selken told CNN: “If allowed, evil will find a way to hurt and destroy. This can no longer be allowed”.

Earlier this week, YouTube announced that it was banning bump stock tutorial videos. A spokesperson said in a statement to the Telegraph: “We have long had a policy against harmful and dangerous content. In the wake of the recent tragedy in Las Vegas, we have taken a closer look at videos that demonstrate how to convert firearms to make them fire more quickly and we’ve expanded our existing policy to prohibit these videos”.

While pressure is placed on US politicians to implement new gun laws, it is likely that more civil lawsuits such as Gasper’s will follow.