Atlanta club faces $66M judgment in killing

A Fulton County judge has ordered the owner of Atlanta's Elleven45 Lounge, Djibril Dafe, to pay approximately 66 million dollars to the family of Mariam Creighton. The Savannah State student athlete, who was also known as Mari, was killed in a shooting at the venue. The judgment represents one of the largest of its kind in Georgia.

The court allocated the damages, specifying an amount for Creighton's pain and suffering and a larger sum for her wrongful death. The ruling determined that the club neglected its duty to protect patrons despite a documented history of violent incidents and police responses. This finding was consistent with prior designations of the establishment as a public nuisance. City authorities had previously described the lounge as a recurring problem location that had ignored necessary safety measures.

The property had already been sold to Atlanta BeltLine Inc. before this ruling as part of an initiative to remove violence-prone businesses from the area. This legal outcome establishes a new precedent for nightclub accountability, signaling that owners can face severe financial repercussions for unsafe conditions. The Creighton family is also pursuing further legal action against other involved entities.