Grimmie Murder And Event Safety

Grimmie, whom Entertainment Weekly once called “the veritable queen of YouTube musicians” when her video channel claimed nearly 1 million subscribers (she has 3.2 million now), had an EP of original songs (titled “Find Me”), a single (“Advice”) that was getting airplay on Radio Disney, and an opening spot touring with friend Selena Gomez. She’d gained a legion of fans as the effervescent contestant on “The Voice” in 2014, where she finished in third place – with some critics saying she should have won.

Grimmie had moved from suburban New Jersey to Los Angeles two years ago to pursue her dreams, which ended when 27-year-old Kevin Loibl traveled from St. Petersburg, Fla., to Orlando with handguns, ammo clips and a hunting knife to end her life after her opening turn for Before You Exit.

“We thought at first they were balloons … but then security started running all over the place yelling at people to get out because someone has a gun and someone is shooting. Everyone is just running all over the place,” said Katilin Martin, who traveled to see to the concert from Brunswick, Ga. “It was chaos.”

Plaza Live Orlando, the 1,255-capacity theatre where Grimmie was killed, had reportedly undergone a management shakeup just 10 days before Liobl managed to get a weapon inside the venue to murder the singer. There’s no evidence the replacement of three management staff adversely affected security at the venue, but questions remain. Jim Heffelfinger took over management of the Plaza Live just a few days before the shooting, former GM Kirk Colvin told Amplify.

Colvin said that during his time as GM, security had “caught several people trying to bring guns and weapons into the venue in the past” and added he was “unsure how the new management team screened fans as they came into the building,” according to Amplify. 

Orlando Police Chief John Mina later said unarmed security guards at Plaza Live had checked bags and purses for contraband, adding there were no metal detectors or pat-downs of people as they came through the doors. Plaza Live – which was to reopen June 16 – has referred all questions regarding the shooting to Orlando police. But the security as described would probably be considered typical at many smaller venues across the country.

It was more security than likely was in place 12 years ago when Damageplan guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott was murdered onstage at Alrosa Villa nightclub by a deranged fan in Columbus, Ohio. And security was present, but couldn’t stop, the terrorist attack on Le Bataclan in Paris seven months ago in which 89 concertgoers were killed. Both underscore the seeming futility of thinking every potential attack can be thwarted with ever-more security.

It’s unreasonable to think installing TSA-level security at every venue that hosts live performances, from neighborhood pubs with live happy hours to stadiums, is the answer. But there are things that can be done to reasonably promote safety without overly compromising the ideal and experience of live entertainment, according to Event Safety Alliance.

The organization posted its response to the Grimmie shooting, as well as the mass murder the next night at The Pulse, where 49 clubgoers were killed. Titled “One is Too Many,” ESA laid out “truths” that it said “appear not to be self-evident.” Among them is “the new normal” that live event venues are “no more immune from active shooters than any other place” – while pointing out that such events are, in fact, not new. Between 2000 and 2013, ESA reports, the U.S. Department of Justice counted 160 active shooter incidents – an average of 6.4 annually in the first half of that period and sharply increasing to 16.4 more recently.

ESA also warns against complacency, or thinking that different genres attract more deadly threats. “No one should go to work thinking they are immune from the threat of a gunman entering their site with deadly intent. The take-away message of active shooter incidents occurring at locations as diverse as a nightclub, movie theater, university, military installation, and elementary school, just to list the five worst, is that none of us has the luxury of complacency,” organization says.

In addition to the “run, hide, fight” directions for those caught in an active shooter situation, ESA advises staff training in crowd management techniques in order to help the most people reach safety – most of whom are likely waiting for instruction from venue personnel. What should seem like an obvious deterrent to those with bad intent are trained, licensed security guards performing rigorous bag-checks and pat-downs of anyone coming through the doors.

As should be clear from a recent shooting in a green room area at New York’s Irving Plaza, it should include searches of artist entourages as well. For larger-capacity venues, magnetometers can help speed up ingress as compared with bag and body searches – however, even those are only as good as the person using or calibrating them, and stopping those attempting to enter who set them off.

ESA also promotes the concept of Crime Prevention Through Environment Design, in which larger event spaces have a perimeter space set up along with extra room for initial security checkpoints.

The organization says CPTED is likely responsible for preventing a bomber from entering the Stade de France outside Paris in November.

“The Event Safety Alliance cannot identify a specific moment when it became imperative for event professionals to address public violence – it hardly matters if it was Sandy Hook or Aurora in 2012, Paris last year, or Orlando this weekend,” ESA concluded. “What matters now is that, in addition to expressing our heartfelt condolences for those who have suffered, we raise our own guard as an industry in order to help protect ourselves, our friends, and our families.”