A judge has approved a $500,000 settlement between a guest safety firm and a boy and a woman who were stabbed by an assailant in a downtown shopping center in 2022.
The attacks occurred Nov. 15, 2022, at the Target store within the FIGat7th shopping center shortly after 6:20 p.m. The victims were later identified as Brayden Medina Molina, then 9 years old, and Joo Hye Song, then 24. Both sued Target Corp., landlord FIGat7th LLC and other entities, including Watermark Security Group Inc.
Both of the plaintiffs’ separately filed negligence/premises liability suits are now consolidated and their attorneys allege the stabber, David Franklin, should not have been able to access a knife from a display area in the Target store. Enedino Espinoza, the Watermark security guard contracted to work within the store, ultimately shot Franklin to death.
On Monday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Anne Hwang signed her approval of the $500,000 accord between the plaintiffs and Watermark, which is now dismissed as a defendant.
The money will fully pay for Brayden’s medical bills of nearly $270,000 as well as Song’s charges of almost $190,000, the Watermark attorneys’ court papers previously filed in support of the settlement stated.
Meanwhile, trial is scheduled Oct. 31 in the part of the case against Target. On Sept. 16, Hwang denied the retailer’s motion to dismiss the part of the case against it, but did toss a cause of action for negligent infliction of emotional distress claimed by Brayden’s mother.
Target attorneys maintain the attacks were unforeseeable and that as events unfolded that evening they initially appeared to involve a petty theft.