AURORA| Several victims of the Aurora theater shooting filed suit Friday against the theater’s owner, arguing the theater failed to provide adequate security the night of the shooting.
The suit was filed in United States District Court in Denver on behalf of victims Brandon Axelrod, Joshua Nowlan, and Denise Traynom against Cinemark USA, Inc., which owns the theater where 12 people were killed and 58 injured July 20.
According to the complaint Cinemark was negligent in not hiring off-duty police to work security during the midnight showing of “The Dark Knight rises.”
The theater regularly hired off-duty officers to work security, but officials said after the shooting that off-duty officers were not on hand that night.
The suit also said the theater’s exterior doors lacked security alarms and that Cinemark failed to monitor their parking lots.
Prosecutors say accused shooter James Holmes bought a ticket to the movie that night and walked out an emergency exit during the film, propping the door open as he left. Then he returned and opened fire.
“(Cinemark) knew or should have known of the dangers and risks caused by its failures,” the suit said.
The suit said when the gunman walked out the door, it didn’t trigger an alarm. An alarm didn’t sound when the gunman propped the door, either.
Without an alarm and without anyone patrolling the parking lot, the gunman had ample time to carry a stockpile of weapons from his car to the door — including a shotgun, assault rifle, pistol and tear gas — as well as don body armor, the suit said.
“The gunman made one or more trips from his car through the open exterior door of Auditorium 9, bringing his arsenal and ammunition through that open door. Throughout that time, no employee or security personnel contacted him, deterred him, monitored him or stopped him from that re-entry,” the suit said.
During the shooting, which lasted for several minutes, no theater employees tried to stop the shooter, the suit said.
The suits seek an undisclosed amount of damages, though each said damages to the three victims should exceed $75,000.
In Nowlan’s case, he was shot in the arm and leg and required several surgeries. The suit said he will be permanently impaired by his injuries.
Traynom was shot in her rear end and Axelrod injured his right knee and ankle fleeing the theater.
Denver law firm Keating, Wagner, Polidori & Free filed the suits Friday and said in a statement that other firms were considering suits as well, including including Lorraine Parker, Esq. and Peter McClenahan, Esq. of Leventhal, Brown & Puga; and Stephen W. Wahlberg, Esq. of Hillyard, Wahlberg, Kudla & Sloane, LLP.
I guess these people want the TSA looking at naked pics of everyone just to watch a movie.
The owner of the theater could have done ZERO to stop this.
There are always people and attorneys looking to file law suits and hoping to get some ill-earned money. The courts are busy enough without people filing suit over something the theatre had no control over.