Historic LGBTQ+ Club In Alabama The business licence of the establishment, where a double homicide occurred in May and where more than 100 violent incidents have been reported in the past year, was revoked at a contentious meeting of Birmingham City Council on Tuesday. AL.com Reported.
Quest Club has been an LGBTQ+ bar since 1982, but before that it was a popular dance club since the 1970s. The club is open 24 hours a day and has been criticized for having lax security. Police say the club has seen a string of violent incidents in recent years, including multiple murders.
Club owner Don Sparks blamed lax gun control laws for the reported incidents.
“You can buy a gun and carry it, but you can’t buy a pack of cigarettes,” Sparks said during a heated City Council meeting.
“I don’t think you guys are taking this situation seriously enough,” City Councilman JT Moore said angrily in response to Sparks and his lawyer. “Your facility poses serious danger. People are taking a risk every time they step foot in there that they could be killed.”
Moore said he visited the club in August and there were no gun security checks, and two police officers also reported inadequate security during a recent visit.
Police say they have been called to the Quest Club 109 times in the past year and 44 times in the past six months.
Police were called to the club on Friday, May 24, on a report of a shooting. Upon arrival, they found two men fatally shot outside the club. The two men reportedly had been in a fight, pulled a gun and began shooting at each other. Terrell Brown Jr., 32, died at the scene. Shane Gaedy, 32, was taken to a local hospital where he died the following Sunday.
“In less than three years, this establishment has had a Birmingham police officer shot, a homicide where two people were shot inside a nightclub, a maximum police presence was deployed because an officer struggled with an individual inside a nightclub and that individual was armed, and then fast forward to this morning, we had another homicide where a person was killed inside the club,” Officer Truman Fitzgerald with the Birmingham Police Department said on the day of the shooting and before Gaedy’s death. AL.com Reported.
Sparks and his lawyers petitioned the city council on Tuesday, saying the club has taken steps to quell violence and ensure the safety of patrons, and that while the club is a historic site for Birmingham’s LGBTQ+ community, the council is disgusted by Sparks and the club’s safety record.
“You guys should be good stewards of that heritage and make sure it’s protected,” City Council Member Valerie Moore told Sparks on Tuesday. “It’s a shame to see a place like this disappear because you guys have been negligent in providing the safety that people need.”
Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
