Old Town club that saw mass shooting in July closes for good
The Old Town nightclub where a mass shooting on July 2 left nine people wounded has closed its doors for good, the club’s attorney said Friday.
City Nightz attorney Charley O’Hara said the club’s signs came down Thursday.
He said negative publicly from the shooting, the police department blaming the club for the shooting and other crimes and police starting the process of labeling the business a nuisance property left the owner with no choice but to close.
“The city has basically made it so burdensome to stay open, they can’t stay open,” he said. “He feels like he was singled out and blamed for a lot of things that happen all over the city and they don’t blame other people.”
Chief Joseph Sullivan suspended the club’s liquor and entertainment license for 30 days starting on July 8. The club, which is roughly a year old, has not reopened.
O’Hara said the whole thing is “very hypocritical.”
He questioned how many of the 13 incidents police have reported as having happened at the club since August 2022 actually occurred in the neighboring public parking lot next door.
He also mentioned the double homicide that happened in the city-owned Old Town parking garage in late July.
“I’m sure they weren’t wanding or having metal detectors for people in the parking lot,” he said. “It’s just very hypocritical.”
Police, in response to the killings, have proposed more security measures for the parking lot.
The club started wanding people at the police department’s recommendation after previous incidents, police have said. O’Hara said wanding is not required by law.
Most Wichita clubs do not wand patrons.
Despite the wanding, O’Hara has said he didn’t know how the guns got in.
Multiple people have been charged in the shootings.
O’Hara said his client has talked about the possibility of suing the city. He said other attorneys have also contacted him on behalf of individuals wanting to sue the club, but he didn’t know if any suit had been filed.
Online court records are not currently available as Sedgwick County District Court transitions to a new records system.