Live Nation has another wrongful death suit on its hands

Late Wednesday afternoon (February 2), a lawsuit was filed in the Super Court of the State of California in LA alleging a wrongful death backstage at the Once Upon a Time in LA. Drakeo the Ruler was an LA-based rapper, otherwise known as Darrell Caldwell.

That night, December 18, Drakeo was stabbed to death. The suit–filed on behalf of Drakeo’s five-year-old sons, contends that Drakeo died “at the hand of a violent mob of purported members of a Los Angeles-based Bloods gang.” It alleges that Live Nation, the main promoter of the festival and two co-promoters, didn’t have proper safety precautions in place and that the murder was the “result of a complete and abject failure of all Defendants to implement proper safety measures in order to ensure the safety and well being of the artists whom they invited and hired to their music festival.”

The suit also alleges the following:

“Had Defendants and each of them, placed the safety and wellbeing of its guests and its invited artists ahead of profits, there would have been an adequate security plan and sufficient security guards and law enforcement presence to have prevented the unnecessary and untimely murder of Drakeo The Ruler, at the hands of over 100 deadly gang members who inexplicably gained access to a restricted area of the venue engaging in an unrelenting and unprevented attack for over 10 minutes.

“Defendants, and each of them, were completely knowledgeable of the potential dangers posed to both their guests and the performers that they hired based upon numerous past incidents of violence and death at their hip hop events, the prevalence of gang activity that would be present, not only because numerous artists they hired were associated with Los Angeles gangs, but also given the fact that the music festival was being held in South Central Los Angeles, one of the most dangerous areas in the greater Los Angeles region. Defendants, and each of them, were also knowledgeable to the fact that as a result of Mr. Caldwell having been falsely accused of being involved with the murder of a member of an Inglewood Bloods gang, he was being targeted by the gang members in order to exact revenge, based upon this false information.”

Live Nation is, of course, also a defendant in the Astroworld festival tragedy in Houston last November. The damage amounts being asked are in the billions.

More at Variety.