LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The estate of a Louisville man who died after a fight at Nowhere Bar in January has filed a wrongful death suit against the bar and its security guards, which included off-duty Louisville Metro Police officers.
Police said they found Christopher McKinney, 35, on the ground, unresponsive outside of the bar at about 1:15 a.m. on Jan. 5. He was taken to University Hospital, where he was declared dead at about 11:15 a.m.
The Louisville Metro Police Department said McKinney and a Nowhere Bar employee got into a fight after McKinney got kicked out for unruly behavior.
The lawsuit claims that Justin Wright, a bouncer at the bar, had “anger issues,” a history of domestic violence and previously has assaulted patrons.
The lawsuit alleges that after McKinney got into an argument at the coat check station, he was thrown out by security guards after which Wright hit McKinney “in the head with a closed-fist in what witnesses describe as a ‘vicious attack.’ Some witnesses reported seeing Wright strike Christopher ‘several times until he fell to the ground.’”
The suit also claims that while McKinney was convulsing, witnesses with medical backgrounds asked to be allowed to help him, but the officers and Wright refused.
“According to hospital and autopsy records, (McKinney) suffered a severe traumatic brain injury, acute kidney injury, hemorrhages to the cervical spine, back, and lung contusions,” the suit reads.
The suit also claims that Wright was taken to the police station by his coworker and friend who was an officer with LMPD.
The suit charges, among other things, that LMPD failed to investigate the incident properly, that the bar failed to investigate Wright’s prior violence before hiring him and that Wright and others committed battery against McKinney and “acted in such a negligent, reckless and/or intentional manner so as to cause (McKinney) to suffer serious bodily and emotional injury, and wrongful death.”
The Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office said in April that it would not file charges.
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