The owners of BMO Stadium are seeking dismissal wholly or in part of all causes of action filed against the venue in a consolidated lawsuit by relatives of the rapper Drakeo the Ruler, who was stabbed to death during a star-studded concert in 2021.
The event was held at what was then called Banc of California Stadium in Exposition Park on Dec. 18, 2021. The 28-year-old singer, whose real name was Darrell Caldwell, was attacked after a fight broke out behind the main stage of the Once Upon A Time in LA music festival. He died later at a hospital.
The plaintiffs include Darrylene Corniel, Drakeo’s mother and the personal representative of his estate, and the singer’s brother, Devante Caldwell.
Along with promoter Live Nation Worldwide Inc., USC and other entities, the suit’s defendants include LAFC Stadium Co. LLC. Although the complaint alleges LAFC and the other defendants had a duty to keep the rapper safe and failed to provide adequate security at the festival, the company was not responsible for that task, according to attorneys who filed court papers on Thursday with Judge James Montgomery in advance of a May 12 hearing.
“LAFC neither owned, possessed, nor exercised control over the location where the incident occurred,” the LAFC lawyers contend. “In addition, the undisputed evidence establishes that LAFC was not engaged in any joint venture with the festival promoters or any other defendant.”
In December 2015, USC and LAFC agreed to a lease in which parts of the land the university leased from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission were subleased to LAFC, according to the company’s attorneys’ court papers.
LAFC had no control over and no part in managing or providing security for any of the relevant areas, the LAFC attorneys further state.
“The backstage area where (Drakeo) was attacked was not a part of the Coliseum property, the Sports Arena property or any property leased or controlled by USC,” according to the suit, which further states that the area was instead controlled and managed by the Office of Exposition Park Management.
The LAFC attorneys state that at about 8:35 p.m., Drakeo and his entourage begin to walk toward the G-Funk performance stage area, traveling from the Yellow Lot toward the LAFC property. Before they reached the LAFC property line, Drakeo and those with him became engaged in an altercation and within minutes, the entertainer was fatally stabbed by a still unidentified person, according to the LAFC lawyers’ pleadings.
Devante Caldwell, who remained with his sibling the entire time, confirmed that neither of the brothers had entered LAFC’s property before or after the attack, the LAFC attorneys state.
Drakeo was a Los Angeles native who has released 10 mixtapes since 2015 and put out his first studio album that year titled “I Am Mr. Mosely.”
Critics have cited his unique flow and “oddly expressive, poetic word choices.” The Los Angeles Times called him “the most original West Coast stylist in decades.”
Drakeo recorded the mixtape “Thank You For Using GTL” at Men’s Central Jail while awaiting trial in the 2016 killing of a 24-year-old man, according to The Times, which said he was acquitted of murder and attempted murder charges. Drakeo later pleaded to conspiracy charges in connection with the killing and was released in November 2020, the newspaper added.