A judge has approved a $500,000 settlement involving two of the defendants in a lawsuit brought on behalf of three young children of a man fatally shot at the Westfield Century City mall in 2020.
Ryan Deshane Givens Jr., 29, of Los Angeles, was killed in the shooting that occurred about 10:30 p.m. Jan. 20, 2020, on Santa Monica Boulevard. Among the defendants in the suit filed in December 2020 are the restaurant, Javier’s, and Universal Protection Service.
During a Friday hearing, Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Mark A. Young approved an accord in which both defendants will pay half of the $500,000 and the net proceeds to each minor plaintiff after fees and costs are deducted will be about $107,340. The minors are currently 11, 10 and 6 years old.
“This was a complex and involved case,” plaintiffs’ attorney Kevin J. Cole stated in a sworn declaration. “The theory of liability, that defendants did not allow Mr. Givens to leave the mall premises immediately, and that they should have called 911 sooner, was developed only after years of discovery, depositions, and dozens of hours pouring through video surveillance footage provided by multiple parties.”
The liability hypothesis was not immediately obvious and many other law firms declined to take the plaintiffs’ case, according to Cole.
Givens was a “loving, caring, and supporting father and his children … continue to suffer from not having their father in their life,” Cole stated in his court papers.
The accused gunman, Brandon Hinton, who was arrested in Baltimore in March 2020 by FBI agents, was extradited to Los Angeles and later acquitted during a criminal trial.
Givens and Hinton were at Javier’s earlier in the evening when a fight broke out between Hinton’s girlfriend and another woman, according to the restaurant’s attorneys’ court papers, which further state that Hinton was later chased outside of another restaurant where he was beaten and kicked on the ground.
Hinton, who did not interact with Givens at Javier’s, escaped his attackers and went to a parking structure, the restaurant’s attorneys’ said in court papers.
“Hinton entered his car and sat there for a few minutes and armed himself with a 9mm pistol,” the Javier’s attorneys’ court papers stated. “Hinton then drove his car out of the parking garage onto Santa Monica Boulevard. He pulled over near the valet exit and exited his vehicle.”
Hinton, now 29, parked his car on Santa Monica Boulevard and while waiting for his girlfriend, Givens drove by and nearly ran over one of Hinton’s feet, prompting Hinton to kick at the car and curse at Givens, the restaurant’s attorneys’ court papers stated.
Givens parked, got out of his car with his hands in his jacket and began running at Hinton, screaming “I’m going to kill you,” according to the eatery’s lawyers’ court papers.
Hinton at first retreated into the parking structure while being chased by Givens, then turned toward Givens, who was still running toward him and yelling, and fired multiple shots at him, according to the restaurant’s attorneys’ court papers.