Lawsuit claims Jefferson Mall security ‘careless’ leading up to mall shooting
LOUISVILLE, Ky. Sept 22 2021 A new lawsuit was filed against Jefferson Mall’s officials and security because of the actions leading up to a shooting last year.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday claims on Sept. 19, 2020, Jimmy Jazz shoe store had a new shoe release. When store manager Sara Gonzalez noticed a crowd growing, she asked for mall security to help.
The lawsuit alleges security declined to help and shortly after shots were fired.
“She ends up getting trampled, one of her employees in particular gets shot, she has to drag him, go hide in the back, and it was a very traumatic and painful experience for her,” Justin May, Gonzalez’s lawyer, said.
May said Gonzalez suffered physical injuries but the trauma has kept her from working since the shooting.
“When you go to work, you don’t expect your coworker to get shot,” he said. “It makes it really hard to want to go back to work again, because you don’t know if you’re safe and you don’t know what’s going to happen, and that can really, really mess you up.”
The lawsuit claims the mall’s officials and security failed to act within reasonable care to protect the people in the mall and employees, like Gonzalez.
“In the end, we want to make sure the public knows that one, the mall is safe, because this shouldn’t happen again and it’s safe to work at the mall, and that way they’ll get this fixed and that’s why we do what we do,” May said.
WDRB reached out to the mall’s ownership company, CBL Properties, but the company said it doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
WDRB