Rappers Gucci Mane, Foogiano sued after shootings at SC nightclub left two dead
Rappers Gucci Mane and Foogiano have been named in a wrongful death lawsuit following a series of shootings at a South Carolina club in July.
The shooting occurred July 5 at Lavish Lounge in Greenville, where two people were killed and eight more injured, McClatchy News reported. Jarquez Kezavion Cooper was arrested July 7 and charged with two counts of murder, seven counts of attempted murder and one count of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office said.
The lawsuit was filed by the estate of Mykala Bell, a 23-year-old mother of two who died in the shooting. Sterling Johnson, a 51-year-old security guard at the club, also died, Greenville News reported.
Gucci Mane was a promoter at the club, which was hosting a Foogiano concert, a wrongful death lawsuit states. The defendants, which include Gucci Mane, Foogiano, Cooper and Lavish Lounge did not provide adequate security, allowed or ignored criminal activity and subjected customers to “unreasonable risk of serious physical harm,” the lawsuit states.
Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis referred to the incident as a “horrific situation” and said the club should not have been open under COVID-19 restrictions.
“They should not have been operating today and certainly should not have brought guns into the club,” Lewis said, according to a news conference posted on Facebook by WLOS “You mix alcohol and guns, it’s just a deadly combination.”
At the time, gatherings of 50 or more people indoors were not allowed, but the sheriff’s office estimated around 200 people were inside Lavish Lounge at the time of the shooting, the Associated Press reported.
Lewis said at the news conference that the club had security on site and video shows patrons were patted down. However, it is suspected that guns were brought in “through a back door, for lack of a better term.”
The sheriff said the shooting occurred after Cooper, a member of Foogiano’s entourage, showed a gang sign to someone in the crowd while he was on stage, WYFF reported. Cooper then got out a gun and began firing, according to authorities, the TV station reported.
Bell’s family asked for a jury trial and an undisclosed amount of punitive damages, according to the lawsuit.
Requests from the Greenville News to Gucci Mane’s representatives and Foogiano’s attorney were not returned, the newspaper said.
Gucci Mane, whose legal name is Radric Davis, previously pleaded guilty to a federal firearms charge in 2014 and served a 3-year prison sentence, Billboard reported.
