Nearly 4 years after Johntae Hudson was shot and killed inside the Nordstrom at Mall of America, his mother is taking the mall and the store to court. Lynn Hudson filed a wrongful-death lawsuit this month against both businesses. She alleges they were negligent and failed to protect her son, and defense attorneys are already pushing back.
Hudson, 19, was killed on Dec. 23, 2022, 2 days before Christmas, during the mall's busiest stretch of the year. A fight turned into a chase through the Nordstrom store, and he was shot 8 times in the back.
The lawsuit argues the mall and the store had too few security staff that day and didn't respond well enough to reports that people, possibly armed, were running through the building before the shooting. According to the complaint, a 911 caller reported someone carrying a gun about 30 minutes before Hudson was shot. An officer patted down people who matched the description and found no weapon. The complaint also lists other gaps: too few trained guards, weak camera monitoring, no metal detectors and failure to remove trespassers. Hudson is asking for more than $50,000 in damages.
To argue the businesses should have seen trouble coming, the suit points to earlier violence at the mall. In December 2021, a shooting there injured 2 people. In August 2022, about 4 months before Hudson's death, gunfire sent the mall into lockdown. The complaint treats both as warnings that more security was needed.
Nordstrom has denied the claims and asked the court to dismiss the case. Mall of America declined to comment, saying it can't discuss pending litigation.
The criminal case ended in 2024. Taeshawn Adams-Wright and Lavon Longstreet, both 17 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Each was sentenced to 30 years in prison, in May and June of that year. The civil suit asks a different question: who else should have stopped it. A judge will first have to decide whether the case goes forward at all.
At: Nordstrom.
