Jury deliberates in Eureka shooting case as Lamplighter owners blame victim

Jurors continued weighing the Eureka shooting case while the Lamplighter’s owners blamed the victim, a defense that has pushed the case beyond a single courtroom dispute and into a broader fight over accountability, safety and trust in one of Eureka’s busiest nightlife corridors. The dispute has become especially charged because the Lamplighter Inn on Broadway was already closed indefinitely after two deaths there earlier this year.

The motel at 4033 Broadway was shuttered after Eureka police responded to separate calls on February 21 and February 26, 2026. In each incident, one person died and another was hospitalized. Police initially said there was no evidence of an overdose scene and no foul play suspected, but later said excess carbon monoxide levels were noted in the deaths. City officials then stepped in, and the City of Eureka Building Official served a First and Final Notice requiring the property to remain closed until the violations were corrected and inspected.

That closure set off a separate civil case that now hangs over the Lamplighter’s name. A wrongful death lawsuit filed April 1 names Harjinder Heer and Surinder Heer as defendants and alleges the property lacked carbon monoxide detectors. The suit says Samantha Hanna, 36, died at the Lamplighter on February 26, five days after another death in the same room. It argues the owners “chose profits over safety” even after the earlier death should have forced the business to close.

The public-safety stakes go well beyond the Lamplighter itself. In Eureka, the motel’s chain-link fencing and tape now stand as a reminder that a property tied to nightlife, short-term stays and neighborhood foot traffic can quickly become a scene of fatal neglect if basic protections are missing. For jurors hearing the shooting case, the victim-blaming argument places responsibility at the center of the deliberations, while the broader Lamplighter record raises a harder question for Humboldt County: how much warning is enough before owners, regulators and the public treat a dangerous property as a serious risk rather than an isolated tragedy.