Fans Raquel Castellanos and Gabriella Davidson has filed a lawsuit against their idol, superstar Beyonce, her concert promoter and the venue where she held one of her concerts in Chicago over the injuries they obtained on the way to her December 13 show. Chicago Tribune said the Cook County women claimed in the lawsuit that they were trampled on their way into the entertainer's show in front of a United Center gate.
The Oak Park women, who are in their early 20s, claimed that they feared for their lives in the events leading to them obtaining their injuries. According to the lawsuit, the complainants were both near the front of a large group of premium general admission ticket holders in one United Center gate. Another venue gate was opened without any explanation to the group, which led to a mad scramble to go to the other gate. Castellanos had broken her ankle while Davidson was knocked out due to the crowd trampling them, their lawyer Thomas Paris said. The women were aided by two other concertgoers before Chicago police arrived and took them via a Chicago Fire Department ambulance to the Rush Medical Center.
The lawsuit said that aside from the superstar, United Center Joint Venture, Live Nation and Entertainment Inc were negligent with their duty to protect the concertgoers by failing to manage the crowd knowing that premium ticket holders, which normally have unassigned seats, will gather hours before the concert in order to get favorable seats. The complainants also said that security personnel at the scene were allegedly nonchalant about the pushing, rushing and running and had opened the gate without further instructions to the crowd or have a reasonable system in place to consider the safety of the large crowd of concertgoers who had assembled there.
The Chicago Tribune had tried to obtain comments from the camps of Beyonce, Live Nation and the United Center. The newspaper said all three could not be reached for comment.
