Jury awards $10M to mother for 2010 fatal nightclub shooting

ST. LOUIS (KMOV) -- A St. Louis jury ruled an insurance company must pay a homicide victim’s mother millions of dollars over a nightclub shooting in 2010.

Orlando Willis was 16 when he was shot and killed outside Pulse Nightclub on North Broadway more than a decade ago. His mother, Latronya Adams, sued after her son’s death, claiming the club’s operators were negligent by inviting a minor to help set up for an adults-only event.

She settled with the nightclub’s landlord in 2014 for $1 million. A judge also awarded her $5 million at a bench trial. Then, Adams filed suit to force the nightclub’s insurance firm to pay.

A spokesperson for Missouri’s 22nd Judicial Court in St. Louis said punitive damages account for half of the $10 million awarded to Adams.

Nine other people were shot in the nightclub shooting. Ranisha Cole, 17, also died in the incident.