A victim of the Las Vegas shooting has filed a lawsuit against
the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

On Monday, 21-year-old Paige Gasper filed a lawsuit against the
Mandalay Bay and MGM Resorts International, the hotel’s
parent company, alleging that the hotel was “negligent or grossly
negligent” in failing to notice or take precautions against the
shooter stockpiling guns in his room, and that employees were not
adequately trained to notice and report suspicious activity.

Also named in the complaint are Live Nation Entertainment Inc.,
which organized the music festival the gunman, Stephen Paddock,
shot attendees of from his room on the 32nd floor of the hotel;
Slide Fire Solutions LP, which makes devices called bump stocks
that Paddock outfitted some of his semiautomatic weapons with to
increase their rate of fire; and Paddock’s estate.

Gasper was shot in the chest when Paddock opened fire from his hotel room on the
crowd of 22,000 people attending the music festival across the
street leaving 58 dead and about 500 others wounded. The
complaint says the bullet shattered her ribs and lacerated her
liver. Gasper was then trampled by fleeing concertgoers before
someone helped her take cover and drove her to a hospital, the
complaint says.

“At all relevant times, Defendants MGM, and/or Mandalay Corp …
knew or should have known that it was reasonably foreseeable that
a breach of their duties to keep their premises reasonably safe
in the aforementioned manner might result in catastrophic injury
perpetrated by a gun-toting guest with an extreme intention to
harm others,” the complaint reads.

Gasper is seeking in excess of $15,000 in damages.

“The tragic incident that took place on October 1st was a
meticulously planned, evil, senseless act,” an MGM Resorts
spokeswoman, Debra DeShong, told Business Insider in a statement.
“As our company and city work through the healing process, our
primary focus and concern is taking actions to support the
victims and their families, our guests and employees, and
cooperating with law enforcement.

“Out of respect for the victims, we are not going to try this
case in the public domain, and we will give our response through
the appropriate legal channels,” DeShong continued.

Gasper’s case is the first reported lawsuit against MGM and the
Mandalay Bay, but it is unlikely to be the last.

It’s very likely that more victims of the shooting will try to
hold the Mandalay Bay accountable by bringing lawsuits against
the hotel and MGM and seeking damages for things like medical
expenses or disabilities resulting from the shooting,
legal experts previously told Business Insider.

David Becker/Getty Images

Broken windows on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on October 2.

Whether such a lawsuit would have merit would depend on many
factors that remain unknown to the public. For example,
the Los Angeles Times reported on Monday that a Mandalay Bay
security guard had alerted the hotel about a gunman before
Paddock opened fire on the crowd — something MGM says may not be
accurate.

“This remains an ongoing investigation with a lot of moving
parts. As evidenced by law-enforcement briefings over the past
week, many facts are still unverified and continue to change as
events are under review,” DeShong said in a statement Tuesday
night. “We cannot be certain about the most recent timeline that
has been communicated publicly, and we believe what is currently
being expressed may not be accurate.”

A lawsuit against MGM may require courts to break legal ground in
assigning liability for mass shootings. As the shootings become
increasingly common, some companies and venues may be seen as
legally liable to take preventative measures.

“If Congress isn’t regulating gun ownership, it is going to be
private parties … who end up regulating their own premises,”
Heidi Li Feldman, a professor at Georgetown Law School,
previously told Business Insider.