A new lawsuit filed in Dallas County District Court claims that significant security failures contributed to the tragic mass shooting at the Allen Premium Outlets in May 2023. Eight people were killed, and seven others injured. The suit argues that the shooter specifically targeted the mall because he knew it was under-secured.
The lawsuit alleges that Simon Property Group and Allied Universal Security Services, responsible for the mall’s security, exhibited gross negligence in failing to adequately protect shoppers, despite repeated requests from the Allen Police Department to bolster security at the outdoor shopping mall.
Allen Police Department records show they had responded to over 3,000 calls at the outlet mall in the three years leading up to the shooting, sometimes multiple times a day.
Only one Allied security guard was on duty the day of the shooting. He was among those killed in the attack.
The lawsuit further claims that the mall was not equipped with appropriate surveillance, communication, and active shooter technology, leaving it vulnerable to such a tragedy.
“Over a 10-year period, security performed just one active shooter drill at that mall,” the lawsuit asserts. “Simon and Allied knew of the risk and how to mitigate it, but refused to prepare accordingly.”
The plaintiffs accuse Allied of failing to properly train its employees, and allege that neither party updated their security policies/procedures in response to the increasing threat of mass shootings.
“Done right, proper security decreases the risk of mass gun violence,” the lawsuit argues, adding that the defendants’ failures had fatal consequences on that tragic day.
Many factors described in this lawsuit are eerily similar to a case in Indiana, where a gunman killed shoppers at the Greenwood Mall in 2022. It appears no Allied personnel were in or near the mall’s food court at the time of the shooting, nor did any security personnel respond to provide aid in the minutes after the attack.
Prior to the shooting, the gunman spent more than an hour in the restroom preparing, unchecked by security. In fact, the Assailant went entirely unnoticed on mall property as he walked through mall’s parking lot, into the mall, through its food court and into the restroom. He was wearing an oversized black backpack, full and sagging, containing an ammunition vest, a Sig Sauer model 400M rifle, a Smith and Wesson M&P15 rifle, a Glock model 33 handgun, six fully loaded 5.56 magazines and two Glock 33 magazines.
Simon and Allied have yet to disclose how many security staff were on site during the incident.
Among their concerns, plaintiffs in the Greenwood Mall lawsuit allege that if the dozens of video feeds throughout the parking lot and mall were adequately staffed and/or all the cameras working properly, and/or if the mall and food court had been appropriately monitored by security, this incident should have been preventable.
Plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Greg Laker and Andrea Simmons from Cohen & Malad, LLP. The firm also represents the Stewart family in Marion Superior Court for injuries related to this matter, Cause No. 49D01-2401-CT-000154.
