A shooting early this morning near the Inner Harbor at Lombard and Light streets is being blamed by city police on the Velvet Rope nightclub, saying the victims and suspect were involved in fight there and had been ejected.
The Redwood Street location has become one of the city's premiere clubs, hosting hip hop stars including Rick Ross, Lil Kim and Trey Songz. But it's also where just a week ago a small riot broke out when patrons angy that a concert had been oversold stormed the front doors, requiring 50 cops to come in to restore order (see picture at left, from city police). Now, after the shooting, city police are again calling for the club to be shut down; there is a liquor board hearing later this month where that could happen.
The question here, and in many other similar cases, is at what point does a nightclub stop being responsible for its patrons?
In this case, the attorney for the Velvet Rope, Paul W. Gardner (of White House gate-crashers Michaele and Tareq Salahi fame) said security guards inside quickly broke up a shoving match. The guards tossed one man out onto Calvert Street and the second (20 minutes later, after he got his coat) through a different door onto Redwood Street. He told me the guards escorted both 1,000 feet away from the club, and that city police pushed them even farther.
Then, shortly after 1 a.m., two groups involving the people in the initial fight reconverge at Lombard and Light streets. Police said one man got a .45 caliber handgun from an alley and shot two other men. It wasn't immediately clear whether the alleged shooter, who has been arrested, was the instigator or the victim in the fight inside the club.
Baltimore police put the blame squarely on the club: "What more has to happen at this location for this business to realize they pose a gave risk for the people in Baltimore?" said police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. "The first time we had a mini riot. That was a week ago. Now we have people shot."
But Gardner asks at what point does responsibility shift from the club to the city? He notes that security broke up the fight, separated the combatants, ejected them through different doors 20 minutes apart and escorted them far from the building. The gun was not inside the club and the shooting occurred 2 1/2 blocks away on a city street.
The liquor board, which is holding a hearing on the near-riot on March 25, could now fold these new complaints into that proceeding. But liquor board chairman Stephan Fogleman can only enforce violations that occur inside an establishment. Police said that they also might intiate padlock proceedings, which account for trouble both inside and outside bars.