Many college students in New York and around the country head to warmer climes in search of a fun-filled week during spring break. For one college student however, his spring break ended with a vicious and violent attack by a prison gang at a beach resort after he attempted to intervene on behalf of a young woman who was being harassed by the group. The man tried to calmly intervene by politely requesting the group stop harassing the young woman. The group apparently did not take kindly to the man’s interference and turned its attention toward him.
The man’s lawsuit names both Coca Cola and South Padre Island beach resort as defendants in the suit. The lawsuit is claiming the attack in which the man was severely beaten and stabbed almost ten times was the result of the resort and the sponsors of the spring break party not providing adequate security to prevent the prison gang members from roaming freely about the premises among the thousands of college students. According to the complaint, the event was promoted as the “largest spring break venue in the nation” and was held at “Coca Cola Beach.”
After intervening on behalf of the young woman, a man tried to strike him and in doing so struck the young woman in the head causing her to fall to the ground. The man began to fear for his safety as well as the young woman’s and tried to defend himself. He was quickly surrounded by roughly ten gang members who repeatedly struck him, beating him over his entire body with picnic coolers. He was also stabbed repeatedly. Bystanders eventually were able to pull the plaintiff out of the fray and some even caught the attack on video using their cellphones.
The premises liability lawsuit also states that the gang members had been harassing invitees to the event for several days prior to the attack. It states that security personnel failed to intervene and remove the dangerous gang members from the premises. This security failure caused tensions to rise and boil over making an altercation more and more inevitable as the week went on. The injured man is seeking punitive damages for his injuries that he claims were a direct result of the negligent security and lack of safety initiatives for invited guests of the events.
Source: Opposing Views, “Derek Madrigal Sues Coke for Gang Attack,” Nov. 5, 2012
Our New York personal injury law firm helps those injured through no fault of their own recover damages from premises liability issues, including inadequate security or other dangerous conditions due to improper maintenance. For more information, please visit the NYC Premises Liability page of our website.