Las Vegas Shooting Rampage Victims Could Receive Payouts Early Next Year

Posted on: September 11, 2020, 08:26h. 

Last updated on: September 11, 2020, 08:26h.

Larry Henry Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Gaming Business, Legislation, Politics, Regulation.

A total of $800 million in payments could be delivered by January to relatives and victims in the 2017 mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip.

Las Vegas massacre
A gunman firing from the Mandalay Bay in 2017 killed or injured approximately 900 people. Relatives and victims could receive settlement payouts next year. (Image: NBC News)

The payouts from MGM Resorts International and its insurers would be distributed to more than 4,400 relatives and victims of the Oct. 1, 2017, massacre, according to the Associated Press.

A gunman firing from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino killed 59 people and wounded more than 850 others attending the nearby Route 91 Harvest outdoor music concert, according to published accounts.

Country music singer Jason Aldean was giving the closing performance when the shooting began. Gunfire rained down from the resort onto the concert site. It is considered the worst mass killing in recent US history.

Robert Eglet, an attorney handling the settlement of numerous lawsuits, recently submitted documents asking a Nevada court to approve negotiations in the case, the Associated Press reported. The plaintiffs are from nearly every state in the US. They also are from Canada, the United Kingdom, Iran, and Ireland.

MGM Resorts in a statement said the court filings are “the next steps in the settlement process … thereby bringing all parties closer to closure so the community can continue to heal,” the Associated Press reported.

Final Process

MGM Resorts, which owns the Mandalay Bay, has acknowledged no liability, according to the Associated Press. It will pay $49 million in the settlement, while its insurers would pay $751 million, according to both sides.

The attorney who spoke with the Associated Press said the most severely injured could receive millions from the settlement. At least $5,000 could go to those who filed a claim for unseen injuries, but did not seek medical attention or therapy.

We’re hopeful it will be by the end of this year, but a lot could depend on appeals and how quickly and efficiently the administrators can finish their work,” Eglet said. “They’ve got a lot of work to do.”

The amounts distributed would be determined by retired Nevada Judge Jennifer Togliatti and retired California Judge Louis Meisinger. A claims management legal firm based in Virginia would assist the retired judges, the Associated Press reported.

Sole Gunman

The gunman in the 2017 rampage was identified as Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old, high-stakes gambler and retired accountant living in Mesquite, Nevada, 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

Paddock had grown up in Arizona, the son of bank robber Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, according to the Los Angeles Times. The elder Paddock went by the aliases “Chromedome” and “Big Daddy.”

The FBI speculated the Las Vegas gunman, who acted alone, wanted “some form of infamy” and that he was “in part influenced by the memory of his father.”

Paddock’s hotel suite had been stockpiled with thousands of rounds of ammunition and with semi-automatic rifles equipped with bump stocks that allowed the weapons to fire almost continuously.

The shooting began shortly after 10 PM Pacific time and lasted more than 10 minutes.

Video later posted on YouTube showed weapons scattered throughout Paddock’s hotel suite. He was found dead in the suite that night from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.