Three more lawsuits stem from fireworks incident outside Sacramento rap concert
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Three lawsuits allege inadequate crowd control after fireworks caused panic
- Lawsuits claim venue remained closed, forcing thousands to wait outside after start
- Plaintiffs report trampling injuries; prior suit included a six-year-old with severe harm
More lawsuits have been filed stemming from a series of fireworks that went off outside downtown Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center as attendees waited for a rap concert.
The three lawsuits, filed in Sacramento Superior Court, date back to October 2024 when popular Florida rapper Rod Wave was scheduled to perform. The concert was canceled after a series of fireworks that were mistaken for gunshots, according to previous Sacramento Bee reporting.
The fireworks set off panic and attendees fled in multiple directions across the Downtown Commons plaza. In police radio dispatches from that day, an officer reported a “count of a hundred.”
In May, five people — including a 6-year-old — alleged in a lawsuit against the Golden 1 Center that they suffered severe injuries from the stampede.
The three latest lawsuits, filed in October, allege similar circumstances and injuries.
Two of the lawsuits were filed against the city and Sacramento Downtown Arena LLC by the Los-Angeles based attorney David Garcia. The lawsuits allege that Golden 1 Center venue remained closed for two hours after the concert’s scheduled start time, which resulted in thousands of attendees congregating outside.
Neither defendant provided “adequate crowd control, security personnel or emergency procedures,” according to the lawsuit. Garcia declined to comment.
The third lawsuit, filed against the city, county and Golden 1 Center, alleges that multiple attendees were “knocked to the ground, stepped on, and trampled by other concertgoers” while trying to flee. Del Rio & Caraway, P.C., a Sacramento-based law firm that filed the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
City spokesperson Jennifer Singer, in a written statement on Tuesday, said the Sacramento Kings Limited Partnership “continues to be a good partner” and has “accepted the defense of both cases.”
