Family of Boise mall shooting victim sues mall, security company, police over killing

The family of a victim of the 2021 Boise Towne Square Mall shooting has sued the mall owner and several local and state government agencies, saying they failed to protect the victim from a dangerous person.

The lawsuit was filed by the estate of Roberto Padilla Arguelles, who was killed while riding an escalator at the mall when a shooter opened fire. The lawsuit was also filed by Padilla Arguelles’s wife, daughters, son, and parents, who live in Mexico.

Jo Acker, a mall security guard, was also killed in the October 2021 shooting. The shooter, Jacob Bergquist, died by suicide.

In the lawsuit filed Wednesday, lawyers for the victim’s family drew on Bergquist’s documented past experience with law enforcement, the mall and other local businesses. Local law enforcement agencies were aware of Bergquist and had been concerned enough about his behavior and possession of firearms that they researched his criminal history, according to previous Statesman reporting. But no arrests were made.

The lawsuit accuses the mall’s owners and its security company, the city of Boise, the Idaho State Police, and the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office of negligence and wrongful death. It argues that each party’s previous encounters with Bergquist — or knowledge of his behavior — should have led to his arrest, or to his being banned from the mall.

A spokesperson for the mall’s owner, Brookfield Property Retail LLC, declined to comment on pending litigation. A Boise spokesperson and a state police spokesperson also declined to comment. Representatives for the security company and Ada County did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The previous encounters the lawsuit cites include:

1. Bergquist entered the governor’s office. Before the shooting, Bergquist had been convicted of a felony in Illinois, which meant he was prohibited by federal laws from possessing a firearm, according to previous Statesman reporting. Bergquist had multiple interactions with police in Boise before the shooting, as well as a state legislator and Gov. Brad Little’s office.

In April 2021, Bergquist walked into Little’s office and asked to interview the governor to “get his thoughts on persons convicted of felonies being able to carry guns,” according to the lawsuit.

An Idaho State Police trooper followed him into the governor’s office and listened to him attest to being a felon and claiming he was allowed to carry a firearm.

The officer later requested that the Ada County prosecutor investigate whether Bergquist could be charged for carrying a weapon as a convicted felon, according to the lawsuit. The prosecutor’s office concluded that “his Illinois felony was not on the list of felony convictions prohibiting firearm possession under Idaho law,” according to the lawsuit.

According to previous Statesman reporting, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined Bergquist had violated federal law by possessing a firearm, but did not confirm that until after he had killed Arguelles and Acker.

2. Bergquist brought a weapon to the mall. Bergquist also came to the mall in June 2021, four months before the shooting. He was armed, which was a violation of the mall’s rules. When confronted by mall security, he “responded in an argumentative and escalating nature,” according to the lawsuit. The mall “failed to notify law enforcement of their encounter with Bergquist and did not take any steps to ban Bergquist from the mall.”

3. He brought weapons to a Boise hospital. In another incident later that month, Bergquist and another person went to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center with guns and a knife, and Saint Alphonsus employees “barricaded the door with a file cabinet” to prevent them from getting inside, according to the lawsuit.

4. He shared racist views online. Bergquist also had a YouTube channel, which local police were aware of and which expressed racist views towards minorities, according to previous Statesman reporting.

The lawsuit notes that law enforcement had “specific knowledge” of the threat Bergquist posed to “immigrants from Mexico and Central America.”

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5. He again entered the mall armed. Around a week before the shooting, he entered the mall again, possessing four handguns, according to the lawsuit. Mall security escorted him from the premises but did not notify law enforcement, according to the lawsuit.

“Defendants knew or should have known based on their multiple, prior concerning encounters with Bergquist that he presented a foreseeable and unreasonable risk of physical harm to invitees at the mall,” according to the lawsuit.

On the day of the shooting, mall security let Bergquist roam inside for close to half an hour before approaching him.

“Although firearms are prohibited in the mall, the mall defendants ... allowed Bergquist to remain in the mall armed with open carry 9 mm handgun and ammunition for approximately 25 minutes before mall security first attempted to make contact with Bergquist,” the lawsuit said.

In April 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the mall security company — Professional Security Consultants, Inc. — for a “serious” violation, and fined it $14,502. The security company has appealed the decision, and a hearing before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission is scheduled for September, according to a spokesperson for the Labor department.

In the lawsuit, the Padilla Arguelles’s family has asked for a jury trial and damages related to his death.