Detroit orders bar shuttered after 4 a.m. quadruple shooting leaves one dead
Aug. 18—Detroit — Continuing a crime-fighting plan that includes shutting down businesses that allow illegal activity, the city's interim police chief Tuesday ordered the closure of a southwest Detroit bar where four customers were shot, one fatally, hours after closing time.
Red's Park-In Bar on Central Avenue, the site of the 4 a.m. shooting Monday that left a 23-year-old man dead, has been the site of 42 police runs since 2016, interim chief James White said during a press briefing outside the bar.
Monday's other shooting victims, ages 18, 26 and 38, are expected to recover, White said.
"We believe the shooting was the result of an earlier argument at about 2:30 a.m.," White said. "A few hours later, two suspects wearing masks drove a dark-colored SUV southbound through the alley and shot into a crowd of people on the patio (in the rear of the bar). Four people were shot, one fatally.
"This happened at 4 a.m. ... bars should not be open at 4 a.m., aside from the tragedy of four people being shot," White said. "We looked and we found liquor code violations and a number of code violations," White said. "So we're having the business shut down."
Attempts to reach the bar's owner Tuesday were not successful.
Days after White took over as interim chief, he and Mayor Mike Duggan announced a crime-fighting and crowd control plan that included shuttering businesses that allow illegal activity in or around their establishments.
Tuesday's enforcement marked at least the fourth Detroit business closed since the initiative was announced. Others included shooting sites Club Mix in Bricktown, an eastside hall where six people were wounded, and a Sunoco station on Plymouth Road on the city's west side.
In the July 13 shooting outside the Chalmers Banquet Hall in the 9800 block of Chalmers, the suspect drove past the facility at 2 a.m. and opened fire into a crowd of more than 100, Detroit police said. Because there was a wake held at the club the next day, city and police officials waited until the event was over before shuttering the business.
In the Sunoco incident on July 31, an employee is accused of shooting a customer.
Officials from the Detroit Fire Department and Buildings & Safety Department closed Red's Park-In Bar Tuesday, affixing signs to the front window indicating that the business had been shuttered.
"We're not kidding around with this," White said. "We'll also be reaching out to the Liquor Commission, looking to pull their liquor license."
Police said they recovered a motorcycle from the bar's patio area that had been stolen from Westland.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Detroit Police Department at (313) 596-1000 or Crimes Stoppers of Michigan at (800) SPEAK-UP.
(313) 222-2134
Twitter: @GeorgeHunter_DN
