Family of Lexington teen killed in Fayette Mall sues owner, raises security issues
Fayette County KY May 28 2021 A teenage homicide victim’s family is suing the owners of Fayette Mall after the 17-year-old was shot during an altercation in the middle of the Lexington shopping center last year.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday and listed CBL & Associates Limited Partnership and CBL & Associates Management as defendants. CBL Properties owns the Fayette Mall along with more than 80 other properties across the United States. The victim’s family is also suing the suspect, Xavier Ja-Car Hardin, over the teen’s death.
Hardin, who was 19 at the time of the homicide, is accused of shooting and killing Kenneth Wayne Bottoms Jr. during the altercation on Aug. 23. He currently faces a murder charge in Fayette Circuit Court.
It’s the second lawsuit filed against the mall’s owner in connection to the shooting. When asked about the lawsuits against CBL, a CBL Properties spokesperson said the company does not comment on pending litigation.
The latest lawsuit was filed on behalf of Bottoms Jr.’s estate. The victim’s father, Kenneth Wayne Bottoms, was appointed the administrator of his son’s estate earlier this year, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that CBL failed “to appropriately manage, maintain, operate, control, secure and inspect the premises.” The complaint was signed by Trey Moore, an attorney representing Bottoms’ estate.
The lawsuit accused Hardin of committing assault and battery and said his “negligence, gross negligence and intentional conduct” had caused Bottoms’ death. The lawsuit also blamed both CBL and Hardin for causing Bottoms to suffer “great pain of body and anguish of mind.”
The lawsuit asks for punitive damages to be paid out by each defendant.
The shooting happened in the afternoon when Hardin walked into the mall, followed by Bottoms and a few acquaintances, according to court records written by Lexington investigators. Surveillance video allegedly showed Bottoms and the acquaintances follow Hardin as he entered Dick’s Sporting Goods and walked through the mall.
The teens got into an argument outside Bath & Body Works, at which point Hardin allegedly pulled out a gun and shot Bottoms in the head. Bottoms later died at University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital. Stray bullets allegedly hit two bystanders uninvolved with the altercation. One was a 17-year-old girl and the other was a 41-year-old man.
The first lawsuit against CBL over the shooting was filed on behalf of the wounded 17-year-old, who was identified only as “H.H.” in court records.
The lawsuit was filed in October against multiple CBL entities, Fayette Mall, mall General Manager Myron Worley, SecurAmerica and ERMC. SecurAmerica is a security company that bought ERMC, another security company, in 2018. SecurAmerica worked with Fayette Mall to provide security at the time of the shooting, according to the lawsuit.
Some of the defendants argued the victim may have been negligent or failed to care for “her safety.”
The initial complaint signed by attorney Mark E. Nichols, the victim’s counsel, said, “The mall has been the site of numerous crimes, including violent crimes, where the Lexington Police Department has had to respond.” There have been several shootings and homicides on Fayette Mall property in recent years. The lawsuit alleged that security measures were inadequate.
Before the August shooting inside Fayette Mall, 26-year-old Santrice Bybee was arrested and charged after he and someone else exchanged nearly 50 gunshots outside Dillard’s on the afternoon of July 4, police said. At least one car was hit in the shooting, police said.
In August 2019, a 30-year-old cosmetologist was shot and killed at a mall exit on Nicholasville Road, police said. One month earlier, three people were shot outside Bar Louie at the mall, but the victims recovered, police said.
In October 2018, a fight outside PF Chang’s led to gunfire. In September 2017, multiple men entered Vengeance, a store at the mall, and committed an armed robbery, police said. No one was injured in the altercation. In July 2017, one person was shot in the mall’s parking lot, but the wound was not life-threatening. Several cars were hit by gunfire, police said.
Following the shooting that killed Bottoms and injured two others, another homicide happened in November in the mall parking lot, according to police. Jermaine Barber, 23, died after allegedly being shot during an argument. Jessin Stateman, 19, was later arrested and charged with murder.
The mall changed some of its policies after Bottoms’ death, implementing a new rule that anyone under 18 was prohibited from being at the mall without a guardian on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The mall updated its policy in November to also enforce a ban on unaccompanied minors from 3 p.m. to close Monday through Friday.
In the October lawsuit, the 17-year-old victim’s attorneys argued that the negligence of the defendants was to blame for the teenager’s injuries. The lawsuit asked for the defendants to be forced to pay “reasonable and necessary” medical expenses and lost wages. In addition, the suit seeks compensation for other damages, including mental anguish and loss of enjoyment of life.
Worley, SecurAmerica and ERMC denied any wrongdoing and asked to be dismissed from the lawsuit, according to their replies filed in court.
Worley said that the injuries and damage the victim suffered “may have been caused in whole or in part by her own negligence.”
SecurAmerica maintained that it had properly-trained and competent security guards on scene and also argued in its reply that the victim failed “to exercise ordinary care for her own safety.”
Fayette Mall security had previously been criticized in a lawsuit filed by another shooting victim. Marcus Littleton, who was wounded outside Bar Louie at the mall in 2019, alleged the mall and Bar Louie owners failed to “provide adequate security under the circumstances” and that led to Littleton being shot, according to the civil complaint filed in circuit court.
Littleton said in the lawsuit he suffered several severe injuries, including “ballistic injury” to his liver, extensive damage to one of his kidneys, partial destruction of his colon and damage to his third vertebra. He underwent a four-hour exploratory surgery to find and repair the damage to his body. He needed an appendectomy and partial removal of his colon.
CBL Properties filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early November after the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic caused money problems for the property owner which largely operates shopping malls.
Counsel for CBL Properties filed a notice in court on Nov. 4 to alert the court and the 17-year-old’s counsel that the company had filed for bankruptcy. Attorney Marcia L. Pearson stated in the notice that filing for bankruptcy operates as an “automatic stay” on commencing judicial issues if those issues could have been commenced before the bankruptcy filing.
Pearson said in the notice that any action against the company without getting an exemption from bankruptcy court would violate the automatic stay.
CBL had missed millions of dollars in interest payments prior to declaring bankruptcy, according to SEC filings.
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