In the aftermath of the Las Vegas shooting, a Santa Clarita attorney representing a number of local victims is weighing in on alleged security issues that may have contributed to the deaths, injuries and emotional traumas of those at the Route 91 Harvest Festival that night.

Rick Patterson of the law firm Owen, Patterson & Owen in Valencia says that the producers of the festival, Live Nation Entertainment and MGM — which also owns the Mandalay Bay hotel where the gunman executed his attack — are among the largest entertainment companies in the world, and should have had a thorough plan in the case of such an event.

“You would assume that they would have seasoned security strategies in place, almost like a blueprint – ‘What do we do? How do we protect people?’” Patterson said.

Patterson is seeking to access documents from the city of Las Vegas detailing the permit that was issued for the Route 91 Harvest Festival in order to determine if all the required security conditions requested by the city were met.

While those conditions currently remain unknown, Patterson pointed out several glaring alleged shortcomings in security at the festival that he says one can reasonably assume were violations of the permit conditions.

First, Patterson noted that there should have been lighted exit signs, along with festival staff members stationed at each exit ready to open them and get people out in the case of an emergency.

“There were none,” Patterson said.

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Next, the staff operating the festival’s lighting should have been trained in what to do in the case of an emergency, which Patterson believes was handled far from appropriately that night.

According to Patterson, the lighting operator allegedly turned floodlights on the crowd of 22,000 as they tried to escape, giving the gunman much better visibility of his targets.

“When the tragedy happened, of course there was chaos, and the chaos was enhanced or increased by the fact that the operator flipped on all of the floodlights on the event, illuminating the crowds of people,” Patterson said. “So what happens? The shooter begins to see the people are crowding to the main exit … and as they were densely packed together, he saw that as an easy target and he started shooting people.”

The last alleged security issue at the festival — which doesn’t appear to have any correlation with the shooting that occurred — is that many attendees claim they were not properly searched with a metal detector wand, according to Patterson.

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“We have many clients and very few of them said they were actually wanded,” he said. “They are supposed to be wanded — most of our clients were never wanded, even those that attended for three days.”

Live Nation Entertainment did not return a request for comment as of the publication of this story. Officials from MGM Resorts International issued the following statement to KHTS on Monday regarding the allegations:

“The tragic incident that took place on October 1st was a meticulously planned, evil senseless act. 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.”

While the case is still under investigation by authorities, Patterson noted that the matter is further complicated because MGM and Mandalay Bay officials have remained tight-lipped.

“Mandalay Bay is not really cooperating, nor is MGM coming to the public and saying, ‘This is what we know, this is what went wrong,’” Patterson said. “It’s a cat and mouse game that’s going on between them, the FBI and the police.”

The courts have issued an order to MGM that no evidence should be tampered with or destroyed, including security codes, cameras, and videos, according to Patterson.

“That will shed a lot of light,” he said.

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While one of Patterson’s goals in representing victims of the Las Vegas shooting is to seek restitution for any negligence that contributed to the outcome, he is also aiming to ensure necessary care for victims in the recovery process, as well as to create change in legal policies regarding public security.

“Consistently our clients indicate that’s the most important thing for them as we’re dealing with the tragedy — they want change,” he said. “They don’t want this to happen again.”  

Patterson is encouraging anyone who was in attendance at the Route 91 Harvest Festival during the Las Vegas shooting to contact him, even if they weren’t physically wounded.

“We are seeking to help all of the people who were not wounded, who were not hit by a bullet, but who were there and experienced the fear,” Patterson said. “Legally stated, it’s an assault. They were being assaulted, and that gives them rise to a claim legally to go after those who were negligent in this process.”

Patterson continued, “There were 22,000 people there as we understand, and the fact is that not all of them will ask for help to get to a settlement, to be able to be compensated for what they experienced, and that’s unfortunate… It’s important that people call someone. There are many good lawyers that can do this and they can find a variety of ways. We’re happy to help anyone.”

Rick Patterson is a partner at the Santa Clarita Law Firm of Owen Patterson Owen. He may be reached at (661) 799-3899 or opolaw.com.