UPDATE, MAY 25, 1:44 P.M.: The family of the Garden Grove toddler who fell to his death during a Lakers-Warriors game in November has filed a lawsuit against the owner and operator of the Staples Center.
Unspecified damages and an injunction barring any more events at Staples until protective railing is installed are being sought in the complaint brought 2-year-old Lucas Anthony Tang's family.
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Staples owner Anschutz Entertainment Group and venue operator L.A. Arena Co. should have informed attendees their luxury box design was dangerous, claims the suit. The plaintiffs have declined to comment pending a review of court documents by their lawyers.
UPDATE, NOV. 24, 2010, 11:25 A.M.: The Los Angeles Police Department's juvenile division is still investigating the death of Lucas Anthony Tang, who fell from a luxury box at the Staples Center Sunday night.
However, the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office has determined the Garden Grove 2-year-old's death was accidental. An autopsy revealed no signs of foul play.
In other developments:
- The Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety reported the luxury box barriers fully complied with building codes when Staples Center was built and still do today.
- A person who knows the family claims the boy's parents had kept a close eye on Lucas, who spent most of the game on his mother's lap. Lucas apparently fell as his family was looking at a digital photo that had been taken of them against the box's glass barrier moments before.
- The Los Angeles Lakers as a franchise expressed its condolences, as have individual players, including Lamar Odom, whose 6½-month old son
Jayden died in his crib in 2006. “It's really sad any time something like this happens,” the star forward reportedly said. “I've sent my
prayers out.”
ORIGINAL POST, NOV. 22, 2010, 10:39 A.M.: The 2-year-old boy who died after plunging from a luxury suite at the Staples Center Sunday night was from Garden Grove.
Lucas Anthony Tang
was crawling around a luxury suite after the Lakers game against the
Golden State Warriors Sunday night. His parents eventually noticed the boy was
missing, searched for him and discovered he had fallen 30 feet to the
bowl area below.
The child showed some arm and leg movement as he was being attended to by paramedics, according to witnesses. However, he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead early Monday at County-USC Medical Center.
Lucas was to turn 3 in January.
The LAPD is investigating the accident, as is routine in such accidents where child abuse or neglect could have been a factor.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.