NorthPark Center has become a dangerous playground for joyriders who recklessly drift cars through the popular Dallas mall’s parking garages and caused the death of a visiting Chinese businessman earlier this year, a lawsuit alleges.

The wrongful-death suit, filed Wednesday in state district court in Dallas County, focuses on the March death of Chinese business owner Yu Luo. It says a joyriding motorist slammed into Luo and a friend, killing one and seriously injuring the other.

With the holiday shopping season on the horizon, attorneys for the men’s families want the court to close all but one of NorthPark’s parking lots for an entire year. The suit calls the garages a “de facto racetrack” and seeks millions in damages for the families.

In a statement to The Dallas Morning News, NorthPark didn’t specifically address the joyriding claims but issued what it called a categorical denial of the lawsuit’s allegations.

“Following the incident, NorthPark immediately began its investigation alongside legal counsel and local authorities," the mall said in a statement. "While NorthPark remains deeply saddened by this incident, NorthPark unequivocally denies all claims of wrongdoing asserted in the lawsuit. Beyond that, NorthPark cannot comment at this time on pending litigation.”

A Dodge Charger driven by Christopher Ryan Shaw, 29, struck two pedestrians, killing Yu Luo and injuring Shiguo Wang (at left), on March 11 in a parking garage at NorthPark Center. (Courtesy of Sean Jackson)

According to the lawsuit, led by Dallas lawyer Marc Lenahan, NorthPark “knowingly tolerated” and “failed to make reasonable attempts to abate” joyriding.

“We even invited North Park representatives to come and meet with the family three times,” Lenahan said. “Three times they’ve chosen not to accept that invitation, and that’s why this lawsuit was necessary.”

Yu Luo (left) and Shiguo Wang. (Courtesy)

On March 11, Luo and Shiguo Wang — described as best friends — were visiting NorthPark. In China, Luo was an athlete and owner of sporting goods stores and Wang an executive working in tech.

The suit says the two found the Nordstrom skywalk entrance from the garage closed for the evening and tried another that fed directly into the mall, where they’d be able to find its restaurants.

Around the same time, Lewisville resident Christopher Shaw was behind the wheel of a 2007 Dodge Charger making a “high-speed run” from the ground floor of the garage to its roof, the suit says. Shaw tried to avoid the pair but lost control of the car and struck both in a crosswalk.

The car threw Luo against a parking garage wall, “his skull hitting like a watermelon,” and killed him, the suit says. Wang was thrown over the edge of the garage and fell two stories, Lenahan said. He remains hospitalized to this day.

Shaw, 29, is awaiting trial on charges of manslaughter and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Eight months after the accident, the wall in the Nordstrom parking garage still shows the scars of the collision, Lenahan said.

Christopher Ryan Shaw in a Dallas County Jail booking photo. Shaw was driving a Dodge Challenger that hit two Chinese men in a NorthPark Center parking garage in March, killing Yu Luo and injuring Shiguo Wang. (Dallas County Sheriff's Dept.)

Lenahan blames NorthPark for allowing its parking garages to become a natural attraction for joyriders. He said the garages’ smooth surfaces, multiple escape routes and limited camera surveillance make them compelling spots for motorists looking to speed through.

“The Nordstrom parking garage has shockingly few video cameras,” Lenahan said.

He cited aerial Google Maps images as evidence that motorists use the parking garage roofs for drifting — a racing technique in which drivers intentionally oversteer, with a loss of traction, while maintaining control around sharp turns. A Dallas Morning News photographer took aerial photographs of the parking garage this week that also show numerous circular tire tracks.

“The rooftops are constantly being covered with ever-recurring doughnuts over and over and over again,” Lenahan said.

A security guard drives a golf cart past tire marks showing evidence of stunt driving on the top level of a NorthPark parking garage where two men were struck by a car in March. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

The mall has not installed speed bumps, curb stops or other physical changes to deter drifting, the suit says.

When Lenahan first attempted to obtain surveillance footage of the accident, NorthPark fought the public release of the video, he said. He filed a legal action that allowed him to view the video as part of his evidence-gathering for the suit.

As part of that evidence-gathering, Lenahan took a sworn statement from David Jensen, president of NorthPark Security Inc.

Jensen said the mall opposed the release because it “would be detrimental to the image and reputation NorthPark Center has … worked to create and maintain for many years in Dallas,” according to an affidavit Lenahan supplied to The News.

“It would likely permanently damage the image and reputation of NorthPark that it has worked so hard to cultivate,” Jensen says in the affidavit.

Lenahan said he was sickened by the surveillance video, which the suit says wasn’t shared with Dallas police. The video is now under the court’s control, he said.

“Twenty years I’ve been doing severe-injury work and I thought I was pretty immune from the gore that comes with this job,” he told The News. “Watching these videos, all I could do is not throw up. They’re just terrible.”

Street racing has been a nuisance for Dallas authorities and residents over the years. In October, a video of street drifters shutting down the Woodall Rodgers Freeway tunnel to do donuts went viral. It’s difficult for authorities to respond to such incidents because drivers can quickly escape.

“The physical act of making it more difficult is all the more important,” Lenahan said.