Arizona couple files lawsuit against Las Vegas hotel where mass shooting took place

Michael Kiefer | The Republic | azcentral.com

Show Caption Hide Caption Frank Calzadillas talks about his wife's recovery Frank Calzadillas talks about his wife Jovanna Calzadillas, right, and her recovery at Barrow Neurological Institute. Calzadillas was shot in the head on Oct. 1, 2017, when a gunman opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas.

In the days before he opened fire on a country music festival from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Stephen Paddock, with the help of hotel staff, moved 24 suitcases containing 23 weapons, ammunition and explosives up a freight elevator, according to a lawsuit filed in Clark County, Nevada, on behalf of an Arizona couple.

The hotel has a no-weapons policy, the lawsuit claims, and yet housekeeping staff did not mention those in Paddock's two-room suite. Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges, security and staff ignored the bolts Paddock used to close off a stairwell door and the surveillance cameras he had placed on a room-service cart in the hallway and in a hotel room door's peephole.

And even after the shooting started, killing 58 people and wounding more than 500 others, the lawsuit claims, security staff delayed their response to the threat.

Jovanna Calzadillas of Queen Creek and her husband Francisco attended the concert. She was shot in the head and miraculously survived.

She and five other concertgoers — who were either shot or are spouses or relatives of gunshot victims — joined in a lawsuit against Mandalay Bay and its parent company, MGM Resorts International. One of the concertgoers was killed; the lawsuit includes his children as plaintiffs.

The lawsuit alleges multiple counts of negligence, wrongful death, loss of consortium, nuisance and negligent hiring, and it asks for unspecified damages to be determined at trial.

It was formally filed in February, but the first amended complaint detailing the claims was filed June 4 in Clark County, Nevada. Several lawsuits were filed in California in the weeks after the Oct. 1, 2017, shooting, but most were dismissed, said Patrick McGroder III, a Phoenix attorney representing the Calzadillas.

Other cases are expected to follow in Nevada, said Las Vegas attorney Shawn Perez, who represents another victim of the shooting.

Attorneys for MGM Resorts and Mandalay Bay have petitioned to have the case removed to federal court instead of trying it in Nevada state court. They reason that it should go to federal court under the SAFETY ACT of 2002 (Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies), which provides federal jurisdiction over acts of mass violence. They have not yet responded to the complaint's particular allegations.

But the lawsuit paints a picture gleaned from police reports after the shooting.

Paddock, identified in the complaint as "the Shooter," checked into Mandalay Bay on Sept. 25, 2017. As a VIP guest, he was allowed to pick rooms giving him a vantage point over the upcoming music festival. Though he was alone, he booked adjoining suites on the 32nd floor, using his girlfriend's name to secure the second suite.

And though guests are not supposed to use service elevators, the lawsuit maintains, hotel bellmen helped Paddock take several loads of luggage up to his suites, six times over the next several days. The elevator runs were captured on surveillance video. Stills from the surveillance videos are included in the complaint.

"MGM's employees also went into the Shooter's room multiple times to perform cleaning, housekeeping, and food service delivery or retrieval," the lawsuit says, "where Plaintiffs believe employees either witnessed his cache of weapons, explosive materials, power tools, hammers, tripods, ammunition, and homemade gas masks ... and therefore negligently and carelessly did not report their observations to law enforcement."

Police eventually found 21 assault rifles, one long rifle, one handgun and 5,000 rounds of ammunition. (An Arizona man is facing charges in federal court for selling some of that ammunition to Paddock).

An hour and a half before the shooting started Oct. 1, the lawsuit alleges, Paddock left a hotel room door open long enough that it triggered an alarm, but it took more than 30 minutes for a hotel security guard to investigate. The guard could not get up the stairwell to Paddock's room because Paddock had bolted shut the stairwell door.

The guard notified the hotel maintenance department instead of security. Moments later, Paddock started firing, and when the guard approached the room, he was shot in the leg. MGM Resorts did not immediately notify law enforcement, the complaint alleges.

The plaintiffs, most of whom were staying in MGM Resorts hotels, including Mandalay Bay, were all at the festival below. One of them, Brian Fraser of California, was killed. His wife, Stephanie, another plaintiff, was with him.

Jovanna Calzadillas was near the stage when the shooting started. She was with her husband Francisco, a policeman who had just returned from military deployment in the Middle East. Jovanna was shot in the head, but Francisco carried her to a police car, and the officer drove them to the hospital. She was not expected to live and hospital staff had advised that her life support be discontinued, but Francisco refused.

Jovanna Calzadillas did survive but will face medical problems for the rest of her life.

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