Goff's Family Seeking Answers About Security Around Nightclub Where He Was Killed

At least four families are talking with a group of attorneys about filing a civil lawsuit against Club Elite after the nightclub dropped its contract with off-duty Palmetto Police officers to provide security at the club.

Benjamin L. Crump, an attorney with Parks Crump, held a press conference Tuesday on behalf of the Goff family and several other families he is representing. He said that the club never should have dropped its contract with off duty police officers to provide security at the club.

Trayon Goff is one of two shooting victims who was killed at the club. His parents, a sister, grandfather and family friends attended the press conference. He three children, ages 5 and younger, were inside the family home with their mother.

Crump said the club owners had recently dropped a contract with the police department, even though there had been problems at the nightclub.

The shooters wouldn't have come on the premises and shot and killed people," he said. "The presence of police deters violence and deters crime."

The club was full that night with about 200 people attending a birthday party. There were people of all ages, but the club is supposed to be limited to people 25 and older.

While the attorneys are investigating the case and trying to find out what security the club did have, whether there was video surveillance and what the club owners had heard before that night, they are weighing the options of filing a civil lawsuit based on negligent security and wrongful death.

So far nothing has been filed.

The attorneys said there have been a lot of rumors and innuendo about the reason behind the shooting but that the bottom line is that "if the police officers would have been outside the club this wouldn't have happened."

The club owners, he said "made a business decision to cancel off-duty police officers."

Nikita Goff, Trayon Goff's sister, talked about her older brother and their relationship, how he was supportive of her going away to college and how proud he was when she graduated.

Now she worries for the future of his three children.

"I can't provide for his kids as their aunt," she said. "But they need to be taken care of."