Orlando's Plaza Live Theater has suspended all events following the shooting death of former Voice contestant Christina Grimmie on Friday night, according to its Facebook page.
And in the weeks and months to come, they and other nightclub owners, tour promoters and artists will likely be re-evaluating rethinking their security plans.
Juana Villegas, who was one of the approximately 120 people attending Grimmie's show at the Plaza Live, told the Orlando Sentinel that while club security, who were unarmed, looked through her bag, they did not pat her down or put concertgoers through metal detectors.
Police say 27-year-old Kevin James Loibl was carrying two small-caliber guns, two magazines and a large hunting knife. But if they weren't in a bag, security wouldn't have discovered them.
Club security measures at that level can vary widely depending on the venue and budget, says John White, president of Protection Management LLC in Canton, Ohio. "It depends on the geographical area the venue is in. Is it in a high-crime or high-risk area? These are all things you want to look at to determine what the risk is, regardless of whether (Grimmie) had any personal threats against her."
Security personnel at these venues may be staff bouncers (who are often not subject to the same regulations as full-time security officers), off-duty police officers, or contractors. "To have security on staff is expensive," White, a retired police officer, explains. "My guess would be that they would bring them in for only certain events."
The Orlando Police Department stated via its website that the club did not hire any of its officers to work the show.
On Saturday, Javier Colon, who won the inaugural season of The Voice and played the same kind of venues as Grimmie, told CNN, "When you're playing small clubs, it's not the same. They don't have the budget for the same level of security for things like armed guards."
Grimmie, who had already come offstage, was back near the merchandise table signing autographs when the suspect approached her and began firing. Her brother Marcus tackled the gunman, who then shot himself. In many small venues, club security guards tend to be concentrated near doors and the stage, often leaving the back of the room vulnerable.
The ripple effect has already begun. On Saturday, singer Bea Miller, who is currently opening for Selena Gomez canceled an outdoor fan event, tweeting, "My team is concerned about my safety and the safety of my fans." But she said she would be signing merchandise inside under the watch of security personnel.
"Each venue needs to look at those things," White says. "(The time that) a performer is onstage is not the only risk. It's going to and from the stage, if they're a target or there's some kind of threat. If this is a person (posing a threat) that nobody saw coming, you may not be able to prevent that person from getting close because a lot of performers don't have security standing between them and the fans. If nobody was watching for it, then it will increase the performer's risk."
But whose responsibility is it to be on the lookout and to conduct risk assessments?
"More often that not, it's going to be the property owner," White explains. "The artist may just be coming into town for one event. They're not going to know all the risks associated with that venue. But the property owner does. It falls on them to make sure their property is safe for the artists who perform there and the patrons who see the show."
He says it's unlikely that clubs will invest in metal detectors after this incident. "It's like the movie theater in Colorado," he says, referencing the 2012 shooting that left 12 dead after a midnight showing of a Batman film. "(Cinemark) just won a civil suit about not having had metal detectors. Random acts are tough to predict. But as this gets more news coverage, I think the management of a good percentage of facilities will start looking at their security and ask, 'Could it happen here?' If it's litigated, people are going to be watching."
