HOUSTON – Attorneys for a man who was allegedly wounded in the November shooting that killed the Grammy-nominated rapper Takeoff filed a lawsuit against the venue where the incident took place, documents revealed.
Joshua Washington has sued 810 Houston’s owners and property managers, saying the venue failed to provide adequate security, screening or emergency assistance either before or after the shooting that killed Takeoff and reportedly wounded him and two others.
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Washington is represented by civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers of the Strom Law Firm and Audia Jones of the Law Office of Audia Jones.
“810 Houston was warned that they needed extra security. They knew it was a hotspot for violent crime and that an after hours event like this could turn deadly in a second. But they ignored those warnings and now they have blood on their hands,” Sellers said in a news release. “This shooting was a tragedy. But it was a preventable tragedy.”
According to the lawsuit, the venue, LVA4 Houston Greenstreet, Lionstone Partners, Midway Companies LLC, and Cushman & Wakefield of Texas “failed to take even the most basic security precautions though they assured invitees that they had, but left victims like Washington to fend for themselves when the shooting started.”
“They had no properly trained security personnel, adequate signage, lighting or cameras. They had no screening to keep out weapons. They didn’t even have a working metal detector,” Jones said. “This was a powder keg of their own making and folks like Takeoff and Joshua Washington got caught in the explosion.”
Washington, who was reportedly working as a personal assistant to Takeoff’s uncle and bandmate Quavo at the time, said it was “immediately apparent” that the venue’s security had “simply didn’t exist once shots rang out.”
“There was no one,” Washington said. “The bullets started flying and no one came to help. There were no security guards trying to stop the shooting, no one to help those of us who were hurt, no one at all. They just left us there to die.”
The lawsuit alleged that Washington was shot in his right side and the bullets missed his colon by inches. He is currently a resident of Georgia.
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