Cinemark Sued By Colorado Theater Shooting Victims
Three of the audience members at a July 20 midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises today sued the theater owner. A pair of lawsuits (read them here) claim that Cinemark failed to provide adequate security at its Century 16 location in Aurora, Colorado for the opening night of The Dark Knight Rises. “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 filed by Denise Traynom and Brandon Axelrod says. Joshua Nowlan, who along with Axelrod received gunshot wounds, also filed a similar suit today. The shooting by James Eagen Holmes killed 12 people and left 58 wounded. “There was no alarm activated during the many minutes while the gunman was stockpiling his arsenal, and inside the theater shooting people,” one of the lawsuits states. “There was no action taken by theater employees to safely evacuate the many people left in Auditorium 9,” it further claims. Asking for a jury trial, the suits say that in each case the damages exceed $75,000. Plaintiffs are represented by Deirdre Ostrowski, Michael Keating, William Keating and Christian Habas of Denver firm Keating Wagner Polidori Free.
Related:
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Josh is a single Dad who was shot twice while using his body to shield his friends. He has casts on his leg and his arm. He has endured 5 major surgeries to repair the large wounds in his right forearm and left calf. He is still struggling with a great deal of pain, both physically and mentally. If any of you would like to contribute directly to help this single Dad, please go to theaurora12.org and click on “help the injured.” You will find a link to help him there.
Way to be constructive. This is what these victims need. Not a lawsuit. Just because something horrible happens doesn’t mean that there.has to be a lawsuit. Few if any ,ovie theaters would be equipped to prevent an event like the one that took place in Aurora.
I feel bad for what Josh went through and wish him well, but maybe tell him not to launch ridiculous lawsuits that are obviously nothing but a money grab. What happened was horrible, but trying to find blame outside of the person who actually did it is a fruitless and empty path. These pointless lawsuits are one of the things that’s wrong with America. People searching for others to blame.
What a horribly unfortunate situation this was and is. With that, I hope these people don’t see a cent and Keating Wagner Polidori Free winds up looking like the a-holes they surely are.
what happened to all these people was horrifying and nightmarish, but to assume some CLASS OF THURSDAY rent-a-cop at a MOVIETHEATER armed with a 9″ flashlight could do anything at all against a full-blown psychotic with a sub-machine gun, tactical shotgun, handgun and full body armor is unreasonable. They deserve private donations and our nation’s sympathy and respect. Not Cinemark’s money.
Exactly.
They should consider suing the federal government for allowing every idiot in the U.S. to carry a gun. This country horrifies me.
This case is the embodiment of everything that is wrong with modern America’s overly litigious society.
This is a horrible situation but I don’t think the theater is the one to blame, why isn’t there a civil suit against the shooter. If the shooting happened at McDonald’s — would mcdonalds be to blame?
Actually that did happen. A few years ago a man named James Huberty walked into a McD’s in CA and opened fire killing and injuring dozens of people. They tried to sue as well but the ruling went to McD’s favor.
I agree. The only person who should be blamed for the horrific tragedy should be the shooter.
I’m sorry haters, but I think they actually have a case. If indeed the gunman entered the back door of the theater multiple times like the lawyers claim, and no security measures are on that door, if I was on that jury, I would rule for the victims. I think it’s common sense if you’re sitting in a dark theater, the theater should be securing outer doors that lead to the parking lot or whereever, where any bum, or gunman, off the street could enter.
I see the Cinemark settling this out, and what the victims get, they deserve.
I know I won’t be going to any Cinemark theater anytime soon, knowing their security is so lax.
The law requires that each cinema has emergency exits. No cinema in history has guards at emergency exits that might be opened once or maybe twice a year.
Designing a secured emergency exist system might be expected now, but it’s entirely unreasonable to think it should have existed during this tragedy.
What an idiotic post. He propped open a fire exit. It has to be unlocked from the inside during business hours by fire code. The local fire code would determine if it had to be alarmed as well. Deciding something on a jury based on your personal opinion and not the facts of the case or knowing what the local laws say is why we live in a society that is sue happy. They chose to go there and there is absolutely no way the theater could have know this would happen. That’s why it is a tragedy. Nor should a security guard, or worse some 16 year old kid working at a theater after school, confront an armed madman. You probably should never leave your house again if you are so scared of what might happen. Newsflash, security is lax everywhere. Chicken little’s like you are why we have to get groped just to get on an airplane now.
haters? wtf? what a horrible use of that word. no one is “hating” in the victims of the shooting idiot
When you find a theatre with alarmed back doors, please let me know. I’ve worked for three chains locally and NONE had them. The exit doors are not where the problem is. This person could have easily did the same thing when the line was outside the door. He could’ve entered a packed store on Black Friday with the same result. Not having you at ANY theatre (as none have alarmed doors) is a relief. You are the kind of person that is a liability to a business.
“Haters”? Because we don’t like to see yet another pointless lawsuit, further jamming the courts and slowing down the process? Yes, the shooter got in through the back exit. Yes, better security might have prevented that. But was the lack of security to blame or was the shooter? Maybe the victims should sue the gun manufacturers, or the government for allowing the sale of the guns, or the lock manufacturers for not making a better lock, or maybe they can sue other people in the theatre for not taking down the shooter.
And your claim that you won’t go to a Cinemark theatre because of their lack of security, only makes sense if you also won’t get in a car, go into your bathroom or really even get out of your bed, because you’ve got a better chance of being killed driving to the theatre, taking a shower or walking across the street than sitting in a movie theatre.
It’s horrible what happened, but people need to stop overreacting and trying to find blame and leach money trying to salve their wounds.
Why is there a need to blame others, the shooter is the one to blame. If this theatre had a guard at the door who tried to stop him, he/she would just be another victim. I completely lose respect and sympathy for victims of crime when they launch these ridiculous lawsuits. Cimemark was also a victim of this crime.
thank you, a voice of reason. If anyone bothered to read the filing, they will see that Cinemark FAILED to secure the theater to keep it safe from having this asshole go in and out of an Emergency exit, several times, to get his murderous gear. Yes, had a ‘rent a cop’ or just a regular cinemark employee been monitoring that door, they could have closed it and called the police.
I’m sorry, but this is a valid lawsuit and I hope the shooting victims win a fair settlement to help with medical bills and loss of wages from work, etc.
Yes, an employee or security guard COULD HAVE checked on the door, which may have very well lead to their death, but does that mean they should be sued for millions of dollars? Were they negligent? No. They just didn’t stop an event no one would have foreseen.
On a side, but related note, these ridiculous lawsuits are slowly taking away people’s freedoms as companies and governments need to protect themselves more and more from greedy people who need someone to blame. If my kid falls off the monkey bars and breaks her arm, I don’t sue the school or city government. But because of ridiculous lawsuits a lot of things that I played on as a child are not legal because a child has gotten hurt from it and a parent sued. Maybe we should have a class action lawsuit against people who sue for ridiculous reasons.
To the people saying the suit is ridiculous, I bet your opinion would be different if you were one of the victims. Do you have any idea how outrageous the hospital/ physical therapy/occupational therapy & counseling are going to cost these people? No, they may not have been able to stop the attack once it was in progress, but where I live theatre workers check out the theatre right before the movie starts, and they should’ve had some sort of emergency evacuation procedure….ESPECIALLY if there are 16 theaters there.
I agree the bulk of the blame lies with the psychotic shooter, but the theatre should’ve been more secure.
Oh please this has no merit. Some ambulance chaser is suing the only entity in the chain of events that has any money. They won’t sue the shooter because he is a broke college kid that will never get out of jail. They are banking on Cinemark settling out of court to avoid looking like jerks for fighting in court. He didn’t “Come and go several times” from anything I have seen either. He went to the movie, walked out and left the door propped open and then came back in and shot the place up. Once again though, the wusses in society will gladly give up more of their rights because of an isolated incident. Enjoy a good old TSA style genital grope the next time you go to the movies. If people like you really need someone to blame, besides the obviousness of blaming the shooter, then blame fire codes that require that exit to be there and to be unlocked from the inside during business hours. There is no law requiring it to be monitored or guarded and it isn’t negligent because no other theater does it either. Negligence requires you do something, or fail to do something, that a reasonably prudent person would. I’m surprised these ambulance chasers aren’t suing the gun companies and the people that sold him the guns and ammo on the internet. The cops couldn’t even get in the theater because of the gas, it’s idiotic to think a security guard or employee could have done any better. People in this country need to figure out how to take care of themselves and stop depending on a nanny state to regulate their lives.
You are absolutely correct. And even if you were not they are requesting a jury trial. Juries these days are extremely empathetic to the plight of the wronged. If they can get this before a jury – and that’s a big if – the plaintiffs are looking at an enormous windfall.
The guy entered and re-entered repeatedly. It is incumbent on the theater to provide a minimal amount of security.
“It is incumbent on the theater to provide a minimal amount of security.”
And they did. The doors were locked and he had pay to get into the theatre first. When you have to pay more for your movie ticket because some idiot sues the theatres and make them add more staff and security, guess who ends up paying in the end, is as always the case?
But no one thinks about these things when they sue. They don’t care. They just want their money.
I hope Cinemark takes this to a jury. No jury is going to blame the cinema for this.
To even try to sue them is disgusting. What happened is a tragedy that no one imagined. Even the victims thought it was a joke at first.
It was imagined. A trailer that was being shown with TDKR showed a shooting in a movie theater.
And considering movie theaters and other types of theaters have been terrorist targets in other countries, the idea that a gunman would go after a movie theater is equally imaginable as someone bombing a Sbarro.
If someone really wants to commit a terrorist act against a movie theatre, you think a little extra security is going to stop them? Are you kidding me? If they are going to kill a theatre full of people, you think having to kill a security guard is going to prevent them?
If you really want to make everything safer, have metal detectors at restaurants, malls and theatres, schools behind electrified fences and armed soldiers at every street corner. Then everything will be safer.
Won’t be going to cinemark because their lack of security???? Sooooooooo, you’re a moron.
Put an alarm on the door. Plain and simple. Every theater in america if you want. But a law suit is ridiculous. It will probably get a grand jury case, win millions and we will all pay for the unfortunate situation. If that’s what it takes for this to never happen again, it’s worth the price of admission.