Elleven45 Lounge: Buckhead club faces 3rd lawsuit over Mother's Day shooting
ATLANTA - A Buckhead nightclub that was the scene of a deadly shooting on Mother's Day now faces a third lawsuit connected to the violence.
Atlanta police say a fight inside the Elleven45 Lounge on the corner of Peachtree Road and Bennett Street escalated to gunfire just after 2 a.m. on May 12.
Mariam Creighton, 21, and Nykris Ridley, 20, were killed in the shooting. Four others were rushed to the hospital with serious injuries.
Earlier this week, Tanya Austin, the mother of Ridley's child, filed a wrongful death lawsuit on their child's behalf.
In the lawsuit, Alston claims the nightclub had a history of violent crime and poor security.
She's seeking $5 million in damages.
Lawsuits against the Buckhead club
Austin's lawsuit is the third filed against Elleven45 Lounge. Last week, Juan Umberto Creighton and Tracey Easton, Creigton's parents, sued the club over her death.
In their lawsuit, the Albany State University volleyball player's parents claim that the nightclub was negligent.
"We’re talking multiple shootings, multiple stabbings," said Parker Miller, the family’s lawyer and member of the Beasley Allen Law Firm. "They know of or should have known about how dangerous this facility was."
The city is already suing the club. Officials want to shut it down, calling it a public nuisance.
On June 6, the city and the business owners agreed to a 60-day closure, saying that they would meet again in early August to discuss the club's future.
The owners of the lounge said in a post on Instagram that the efforts to shut down the lounge are racially targeted. They also said that they would install new security measures, including a digital age verification process and 33-zone metal detectors.
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Arrest made in Elleven45 shooting
Karanji Reese (Fulton County Sheriff's Office)
A day before the city and the club agreed to the temporary closure, police say they made an arrest in connection with the deadly shooting.
According to the Atlanta Police Department, 21-year-old Karanji Reese turned himself in to police on June 5. He has been charged with murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.