On June 10, 2016, Grimmie performed with the band
Before You Exit at
the Plaza Live in
Orlando, Florida. After her performance ended at 10:00p.m. local time, Grimmie held a meet-and-greet with her fans inside the venue. Fans were lined up as Grimmie signed autographs and took
selfies with them. At 10:24p.m., 27-year-old Kevin James Loibl, who was in line, approached Grimmie when it was his turn. She opened her arms to hug him. Loibl then pulled out a
Glock pistol and shot her three times at
point-blank range. Grimmie's brother, who was selling merchandise at a nearby table, jumped towards and tackled Loibl, and the men scuffled; Loibl broke free, backed against a wall, pulled out another pistol and shot himself in the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Grimmie was on the floor bleeding from the back of her head, with a weak pulse. After
CPR was performed on her by an attending physician, she was taken to the
Orlando Regional Medical Center in critical condition; by 10:59p.m., she was pronounced dead. An autopsy performed the following day concluded that Grimmie had been shot once in the head and twice in the chest. The
Orlando Police Department said Loibl had traveled by taxi to Orlando from his home in
St. Petersburg, Florida, According to Orlando police, the bags of the attendees would normally have been checked, but there were no
metal detectors at the venue, nor were the attendees
frisked. One witness complained that the security was concerned about food and beverages being brought into the theater, but did not catch Loibl's guns. Witnesses described Loibl as "nervous" and "kinda creepy". Loibl had purchased the guns legally. He did not have an arrest record in his home county of
Pinellas, but did have previous run-ins with the police. He did not appear to know Grimmie personally, nor did Grimmie know him. He had not had any diagnosis of any mental illnesses, but had a history of violence. Police did not offer a motive, but said that Loibl had shown an "unhealthy and unrealistic infatuation" with the singer and tried to make himself more physically attractive to her through weight loss, hair transplants, teeth whitening and eye surgery. The
Orlando Sentinel described his motive as "If I can't have you, then nobody else canand I'm going to possess you by taking your life." Although Loibl lived "like a hermit", his family said that they were not aware of his plans to travel to Orlando nor that he possessed any guns. They also stated that they had never heard of Grimmie, heard Loibl talk about her, nor watched
The Voice. However, his "only friend in the world" claimed to have known about Loibl's obsession, though not its extent; Loibl's co-workers stated the same. They said Loibl would be "angry and defensive" when questioned about his obsession with Grimmie and before the shooting he had stated he was "tired and ready to ascend".
Aftermath and reactions Dozens of artists and other celebrities took to social media in response to Grimmie's death.
The Voice tweeted, "There are no words. We lost a beautiful soul with an amazing voice". On June 23,
Billboard magazine
published an open letter advocating gun control, addressed to the
United States Congress, demanding that
universal background checks become federal law, referring to Grimmie's death and also the
Pulse nightclub shooting, which happened less than 30 hours after Grimmie's death and killed 49. The petition carried nearly 200 signatures of famous musicians and music industry executives. Selena Gomez was a prominent signee of the document. On August 21,
NBC broadcast a post-
Olympics preview episode of
The Voice dedicated "in loving memory of our friend Christina Grimmie." Her former coach,
Adam Levine, wrote that he and
his wife were "absolutely devastated and heartbroken... This is yet another senseless act of extreme violence."
Blake Shelton wrote "I'm stunned and disgusted and heartbroken that we lost that sweet little girl." Longtime friend and former tour-mate
Selena Gomez was performing only a few miles away from Grimmie at the
Amway Center at the time of the murder. The following morning she wrote, "My heart is absolutely broken. I miss you, Christina." Gomez also tearfully dedicated her performance of Hillsong's "Transfiguration" to Grimmie's memory at her
Miami concert the following night on June 11, and then canceled a meet-and-greet scheduled to take place that night, citing fear and grief. Gomez later checked into rehab and put her tour on hold. Many others dedicated performances to Grimmie, such as
Justin Bieber,
Sabrina Carpenter,
Demi Lovato,
Maroon 5,
Twenty One Pilots,
Charlie Puth, and
Rachel Platten.
Dove Cameron, who had previously collaborated with Grimmie, expressed her grief over the course of a few days on
Twitter. Before You Exit, with whom Grimmie had performed before her murder, tweeted, "Today we lost an angel, sister, and a beloved friend." The family of the perpetrator of Grimmie's murder left a handwritten note on their doorstep offering their condolences and apologies for their son's actions, with "no other comments".
Susan Wojcicki, the CEO of
YouTube, paid tribute by saying the YouTube family was "heartbroken" and "shocked" to hear of Grimmie's murder, with YouTube officially paying tribute on their website. Many
YouTubers made tribute videos for Grimmie, and on June 17, a montage of clips featuring Grimmie titled "In Loving Memory Of Christina Grimmie" was posted on her official YouTube channel, which gained upwards of 2.5 million views and 33,000 comments in the first four days. Songs written and recorded in Grimmie's memory include Tyler Ward's "A Song for Christina",
Before You Exit's "Clouds",
MAX's "Christina's Song", "Somebody's Angel" by
Jacquie Lee, and "
Blink of an Eye" by
Tori Kelly. In
Season 11 of
The Voice, the coaches performed "
Dream On" at the start of the show, as a tribute to Grimmie. In
Season 12, Team Adam performed "
Hey Jude" as another tribute to Grimmie; her family was in the audience. On June 11, a
GoFundMe was created by Grimmie's manager to cover funeral costs and expenses for the Grimmie family, raising over $170,000 in two days and surpassing its goal of $4,000. It received over 25,000 shares through
social media; however, soon after, Adam Levine offered to pay for all expenses. A petition was also created on
change.org to honor Grimmie, a fan of the
video game series
The Legend of Zelda, by naming a
non-playable character after her in the upcoming
Legend of Zelda game set to be released the following year. It was signed by over 70,000 people, including her brother Marcus, though nothing ever came of it. Grimmie was scheduled to appear at
E3 2016; the president of
Nintendo of America,
Reggie Fils-Aimé, gave his condolences to Grimmie and the victims of the
Orlando nightclub shooting before giving his Nintendo E3 2016 speech on announcing
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Grimmie's death led to calls for increased security at performing arts venues, and also created a discussion about
gun control and
mental health. American heavy metal band
Pantera, noting the similarities between Grimmie's murder and
the deaths of former Pantera guitarist Darrell Abbott and three others in 2004, urged concert promoters and club owners to impose stronger measures to protect artists from "gun-wielding fanatics", adding: "Sadly, that's not the case and another rising star had to pay the consequences with her life."
The Plaza Live reopened four days after the shooting, paying tribute to Grimmie. Management asked Orlando police to help evaluate the club's security. Some singers in
Las Vegas—including Cali Tucker, another
season six contestant on
The Voice—were given escorts after their performances. In California,
VidCon added metal detectors and security officers, and banned informal meet-and-greets in the wake of Grimmie's murder. Video personalities including
Joey Graceffa were assigned private security. An industry attorney said the extra measures are "expensive, and fans don't like it. But this is the new reality." In February 2017, Grimmie's family announced their plans to create a foundation in her honor named "The Christina Grimmie Foundation". Later that month, an episode of
48 Hours titled "Stalked" aired, focusing on Grimmie's murder. On the second anniversary of Grimmie's murder, the city of Orlando paid tribute, as did the police force. That same month, a podcast titled
Christina Grimmie: The Murder of a Rising Star was released, with separate episodes all focusing on key components of her murder. After the
Jacksonville Landing shooting occurred in August 2018,
BBC News compared Grimmie's murder with it, along with other shootings that had occurred in
Florida. Grimmie's death was the inspiration for the 2022 song "
Glimpse of Us", co-written by her close-friends Connor and Riley McDonough of Before You Exit (along with Alexis Kesselman and Castle) and released by Japanese-Australian singer-songwriter
Joji, who formerly went by the
YouTube moniker Filthy Frank. The song was originally created as a voice memo by Riley McDonough in 2019 to cope with Grimmie's death, as during recording he "[called] out to God, [asking], "If I could only catch a glimpse of you." It was released as a single on June 10, 2022 and peaked at #8 on the
Billboard Hot 100.
Lawsuit In December 2016, six months after her murder, Grimmie's family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in
Florida circuit court against several entities, including the concert promoter, the foundation that owns the venue, and the security company working the event. In January 2017, the promoter and the owner of the venue requested that the judge dismiss the lawsuit, claiming Florida law does not allow business owners to be held liable for attacks on their property. A hearing on the motion to dismiss the lawsuit was set for May 23. The lawsuit was dismissed but Grimmie's family was given an opportunity to re-file the suit. The judge stated that the suit did not make enough of a distinction between the concert promoter and the venue owner. In May 2017, the family's attorney, Brian Caplan, said that Grimmie's family would file a new complaint after a Florida judge dismissed the original lawsuit. On April 9, 2018, just short of a year after the Grimmie family filed a new complaint in a Florida court, it was revealed that a judge rejected the defendants' AEG Live and the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra Plaza Foundation motions to dismiss the case, and allowed the family's lawsuit to move forward. In their lawsuit, the Grimmie family alleged that the defendants had "failed to take adequate security measures to ensure the safety of the performers and the attendees at the concert venue." Grimmie's family was also allowed to move forward on claims of "negligent infliction of emotional distress". The judge determined more research on the claims would be needed before going forward. According to court records, on December 3, 2019, Grimmie's family voluntarily dismissed the case. == Filmography ==