Quavo‘s assistant, who was one of three people wounded in the November 2022 shooting in Houston that killed Migos rapper Takeoff, filed a lawsuit against the venue Wednesday (Aug. 16) for failing to provide adequate security, screening or emergency assistance before or after the incident.
Joshua Washington, who was working as Quavo’s personal assistant at the time of the tragedy, is suing 810 Billiards and Bowling, its owners and property managers over the incident. He is being represented by civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers of the Strom Law Firm and Audia Jones of the Law Office of Audia Jones.
“810 Houston was warned that they needed extra security. They knew it was a hotspot for violent crime and that an after-hours event like this could turn deadly in a second,” said Sellers in a statement. “But they ignored those warnings and now they have blood on their hands. This shooting was a tragedy. But it was a preventable tragedy.”
According to the lawsuit, defendants 810 Houston, LVA4 Houston Greenstreet, Lionstone Partners, Midway Companies and Cushman & Wakefeld of Texas “provided no screening mechanisms, no after-hours controls or security measures, and no enforcement of rules or industry standards to deter crime against their invitees.” The suit also states that while the shooting was taking place, “no security personnel or personnel from the venue responded or otherwise attempted to deter or end the violence.”
“They had no properly trained security personnel, adequate signage, lighting or cameras. They had no screening to keep out weapons. They didn’t even have a working metal detector,” Jones said in a statement. “This was a powder keg of their own making and folks like Takeoff and Joshua Washington got caught in the explosion.”
Takeoff (real name Kirshnik Khari Ball) was shot and killed in the wee hours of Nov. 1, 2022. He was 28.
Washington, who was an innocent bystander, was shot in his right side by stray bullets, which entered about an inch from his colon. And because the elevators and escalators at the venue “were not operational before, during, or after the event,” he claimed in the suit that he had to run down three flights of stairs while sustaining serious personal injuries, find his own way to the hospital and spend approximately one to two days there while seeking the care of medical professionals. Washington had the bullet from his right side removed, but doctors were unable to remove the bullet fragments. He currently resides in Georgia.
“There was no one. The bullets started flying and no one came to help,” Washington said in a statement. “There were no security guards trying to stop the shooting, no one to help those of us who were hurt, no one at all. They just left us there to die.”
Washington’s lawsuit was filed just two months after Takeoff’s mother, Titania Davenport, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Houston bowling alley.
Representatives for 810 Billiards & Bowling did not respond to Billboard‘s request for comment at press time.
You can read the full lawsuit below.
