The family of a 21-year-old woman has sued the nightclub in west suburban Stone Park where she was fatally shot earlier this month.
Zulma Calderon-Pacheco’s family and boyfriend of five years filed the wrongful death lawsuit Monday against Mansion Live, claiming a security guard fired a gun after a fight broke out on the dance floor. Calderon-Pacheco was shot in the face about 1:40 a.m. March 8, court documents say.
Her death was ruled a homicide by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
The lawsuit alleges Mansion Live failed to properly train and supervise security guards, failed to staff an appropriate number of security guards, allowed security to carry a firearm when it was unsafe, and was “otherwise careless and negligent” in how the venue was run.
The nightclub also did not regularly use metal detectors to check venue-goers who entered, the lawsuit claims.
“We want answers as to why a nightclub that is making tens of thousands of dollars a night from all these thousands of young people there aren’t protecting their customers,” the family’s attorney, Timothy J. Cavanagh, told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Calderon-Pacheco’s family and boyfriend, along with Cavanagh and attorney Michael Sorich, announced the lawsuit at an emotional news conference Tuesday morning.
“Security guards are supposed to protect innocent patrons like Zulma Daniela Calderon-Pacheco from danger, not fatally shoot them,” Cavanagh said in a statement Monday. “Firing a gun into a crowded dance floor is reckless and negligent conduct by any measure.”
The lawsuit alleges fights had broken out at the club previously and it had a “history of violence.”
Security guard Kevin Henley Jr., 35, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, Stone Park police said.
Henley was a bouncer at the nightclub for about two weeks when the shooting happened and was not supposed to be armed, prosecutors said Tuesday at a court hearing in Maywood. He was on probation at the time of the shooting.
Moments before Calderon-Pacheco was fatally shot, a fight broke out on the dance floor and cellphone video shows Henley surrounded by patrons as they appeared to punch him, according to court documents.
Henley allegedly reached into his waistband, pulled out a handgun and “makes a motion as if to chamber a round in the firearm,” prosecutors said.
At the same time, an individual behind Henley pulls on and breaks his chain, prompting the security guard to make a “windmill punching motion” toward the person causing the gun to go off and strike Calderon-Pacheco, officials said.
The 21-year-old was not involved in the scuffle and was on the dance floor with her boyfriend at the time, court records show.
After the shooting, Henley “simply walks away” and hid the gun in the tile of an upstairs bathroom at the club before going home, prosecutors said.
Three witnesses identified Henley as the shooter in a photo array, and his boss confirmed he was not authorized to carry a firearm, authorities said.
Prosecutors say Henley admitted to bringing the gun into the club and hiding it after the shooting, and he told detectives he intended to fire a warning shot and didn’t mean to strike anyone.
He was placed on electronic monitoring and ordered to stay away from the nightclub and cannot possess firearms. However, he remains in custody on a probation violation.
His next court date was scheduled for April 11 in Maywood.
Cavanagh said he expects to amend the lawsuit to include Henley and JMC Security LLC, the River Grove-based security firm that employed him as defendants.
The firm, which operated since 2023, was involuntarily dissolved March 14 after “failing to file proper paperwork,” according to Cavanagh and Illinois Secretary of State records.
“Why did [Mansion Live] hire a security guard that has a criminal history, that has no right to carry a gun under Illinois law, doesn’t have a FOID card and wasn’t properly trained?” Cavanagh asked at the news conference. “He shouldn’t have had a gun, he shouldn’t have been there, he shouldn’t have fired the shot that killed this wonderful young woman.”
A petition on change.org demanding the nightclub be shut down has collected over 5,400 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon.
Mansion Live didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.