Live Nation will have to either go to trial or settle a lawsuit that blames the concert promotions juggernaut for a deadly 2023 shooting at the Beyond Wonderland festival in Washington, a judge ruled.

The Feb. 13 court ruling rejected Live Nation’s motion for summary judgment over its alleged culpability in the June 2023 shooting at the Gorge Amphitheatre, which saw a man, James Kelly, open fire at the festival campgrounds after allegedly taking hallucinogenic mushrooms.

The case was brought in 2024 by the families of Brandy Escamilla and Josilyn Ruiz, who died in the shooting, as well as by Lily Luksich, Kelly’s then-girlfriend, who was shot but survived. The victims claim Live Nation, which operates the Gorge and promoted the EDM festival through its partial subsidiary Insomniac Events, could have prevented the shooting if it had more carefully screened festival attendees for drugs and weapons or ejected Kelly after he began acting suspiciously.

Live Nation maintains that it could not have foreseen that Kelly, an upstanding Army servicemember with no known violent history, would go on an “unprovoked homicidal rampage” during a “bad trip.” The company says it can’t be held liable for failing to prevent something so random — and that its security team’s gun-sniffing dogs did in fact search Kelly’s car when he entered the Gorge campground, but found nothing.

But Judge Patrick Oishi was apparently unconvinced by this argument, refusing to dismiss the case in a one-page order that did not specify his reasoning. The case will now move towards a trial currently scheduled for June, though it’s possible Live Nation will opt to settle the claims rather than go before a jury.

A lawyer for the Escamilla and Ruiz families, Brian Panish, said in a statement on Thursday (Feb. 19) that the ruling is “a critical step toward accountability for the tragic 2023 Beyond Wonderland shooting.”

“The court correctly rejected Live Nation’s attempt to avoid responsibility by claiming it owed no duty to take reasonable measures to protect concertgoers from the foreseeable risk of gun violence at its venue,” added Panish. “Our clients’ families deserve their day in court and will continue to pursue justice to ensure this never happens to another family.”

Luksich’s attorney, Tomás Gahan, told Billboard that the decision “was not only correct, it was expected.”

“The thrust of Live Nation’s argument was that it could not be liable for failing to take any reasonable actions to keep firearms out of its concert and campground venue because the risk of a mass shooting resulting from allowing firearms inside the venue under these circumstances was somehow ‘not foreseeable,” said Gahan. “This contention flew in the face of the facts of the case, which made clear that Live Nation knew that there was a real risk of a mass shooting should guns be permitted inside its venue.”

A rep for Live Nation did not return a request for comment on the decision.

The families of Escamilla and Ruiz are suing for wrongful death and seeking unspecified financial damages for funeral costs, lost earning capacity and emotional suffering. They’re also bringing negligence claims alongside Luksich, who wants monetary damages for both physical and mental pain.

The 2024 lawsuit alleges that the joint Live Nation-Insomniac venture “prioritized profit over security.” The victims say Live Nation didn’t adequately search Kelly’s car, even though they knew illicit drugs and weapons were an issue on the premises; they pointed out that in 2022, just one year earlier, a man had been arrested during the Bass Canyon festival at the Gorge, also promoted by Live Nation, after he inhaled an intoxicant and then loaded two pistols in the venue’s parking lot.

“Despite that history and knowledge, Live Nation failed to take reasonable steps to make the venue and campgrounds safe for concertgoers,” reads the lawsuit.

Live Nation contends that the events of June 2023 were “heinous, random acts of murder.” The company notes that this was the first shooting to take place at the Gorge in its 20 years overseeing the venue, and that Beyond Wonderland had always been peaceful before the incident.

Another injured victim in the shooting, Andrew Cuadra, is also suing Live Nation in a separate case. A summary judgment hearing in that lawsuit is set for March.

Kelly, meanwhile, is facing criminal murder charges and has maintained a plea of not guilty. His case is being prosecuted in military court because he was serving as a field artillery coordinator at a Washington army base at the time of the shooting, according to the NBC affiliate KHQ.

“I feel, like, cheated in a sense, you know, especially with my father … [with] me being a man now and, like, us building that bond as men. I just was excited for the future ahead of us.”

That’s one of the reflections that D’Angelo’s son Michael Archer Jr. shares in an exclusive clip from the ABC News Live special, Love & Neo-Soul: Honoring D’Angelo. The special, which airs Thursday (Feb. 19) at 8:30 p.m., marks Archer Jr.’s first primetime interview since the 2025 deaths of his Grammy Award-winning father and Grammy-nominated mother, Angie Stone. In the special, he also reflects on the roof-raising, star-studded tribute to his father and Roberta Flack (“I love the tribute; it’s just bittersweet”) led by Ms. Lauryn Hill at the Grammy Awards in February, and how he’s working through his grief.

In the exclusive clip featured on Billboard.com, Archer Jr. says he learned about his father being sick in “like June or July” of last year before D’Angelo lost his battle with pancreatic cancer in October. “His voice sounded weak,” Archer Jr. remembers, “but he was still trying to talk to me.” At the same time, Archer Jr. was still mourning the loss of mom Stone, who died in a car crash seven months earlier in March.

When Diaz asks Archer Jr. (who performs under the stage name Swayvo Train) to share some of his favorite songs by his parents, he cites a single — written in 1998 after his birth — from D’Angelo’s 2000 Voodoo album. “Definitely ‘Send It On’ by my pops,” Archer Jr. answers. “Him and my mom wrote that together.” He later notes of his dad, “He left a stamp on the world.”

Love & Neo-Soul: Honoring D’Angelo is hosted by ABC News’ Rocsi Diaz. In addition to Archer Jr., Diaz talks with Grammy-winning and Academy Award-nominated singer-songwriter-actress Andra Day and DJ-producer-rapper D-Nice about D’Angelo’s pioneering role in the ‘90s neo-soul movement. She also speaks with several artists influenced by the four-time Grammy winner, including Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Ari Lennox, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Lucky Daye and British-Sudanese singer-songwriter Elmiene.

ABC News Live will stream Love & Neo-Soul: Honoring D’Angelo tonight on ABC News Live at 8:30 p.m. ET. The network broadcast is available as well on Disney+, Hulu and the ABC News website, among other outlets and apps.

Some feuds get squashed, while others last forever. Ja Rule’s feud with 50 Cent and G-Unit will remain in the never-ending category for the foreseeable future.

TMZ caught up with Ja in New York City in a video posted Wednesday (Feb. 18), with the outlet asking him about potentially reconciling with 50 and Tony Yayo following the airplane altercation with Yayo and Uncle Murda during Super Bowl weekend in the Bay Area, but he’s got no plans of making amends with his longtime foes.

“Sometimes in life, people have enemies, and that’s OK. Everybody can’t be friends,” Ja Rule declared. “But what I’m saying is, we don’t also have to be at war. There’s room for us to be not friends and also not be at war.”

The Murda Inc. rapper continued: “I don’t deal with that side. I don’t f—k with them [and] they don’t f–k with me. That’s fine, but I also don’t have to be at war.”

Ja Rule had a heated argument on a San Francisco flight on Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 8), which saw him going back and forth with Tony Yayo and Uncle Murda while allegedly launching a pillow at the duo.

“Sucka a— Ja Rule on the plane,” Murda said in the clip. “Shut yo sucka a— up you f—king sucka!”

Ja answered: “Old a—, police a—, sucka a—!”

An alternate angle showed Ja ready to pop off before cooler heads prevailed, and he was reportedly removed from the flight. “Let’s shake,” he repeated.

The 49-year-old apologized for his behavior via ABC News following the incident. “I’m not proud of my behavior. It’s goofy to me. I’m a grown man about to be a proud grandfather, and I wish that video of me wasn’t out there either,” he said in a statement. “I don’t like people taking me out of my character, so for that, I apologize to my wife, family, fans, business and investment partners.”

50 Cent didn’t waste an opportunity to troll Ja Rule, and he followed up with a quote from his feuding masterclass guide to “let your enemies become your motivation” in life.

“Good morning Let your enemies become motivation, make them watch your success till they snap. Then get the [f—k] out the way before they crash out. LOL,” he captioned a post on IG Feb. 18 alongside a Sade-soundtracked clip from his DoorDash campaign ad.