City wants to shutter unlicensed ‘nuisance’ club that’s site of homicide, shootings
The City of Wichita is asking a judge for permission to shutter an unlicensed after-hours club where it says unlawful drug use and alcohol sales, brawls and gunfire has put the public in danger.
Crime at 7007 E. Harry was particularly problematic last month, when a stomping, a battery and a shooting all happened at the address in one weekend.
But the issues aren’t new, the city said in a Nov. 8 petition seeking nuisance abatement and an order that would allow the city to padlock the property for two years. Currently, a club known as “The Peoples 316 Association” operates there. A sign on the brick building identifies it as a political organization and lists a website that indicates the group is affiliated with the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
The club owner could not be reached for comment.
In the past, the address has been home to clubs by other names including Daiquiri’s and Mystique.
Since 2017, the Wichita Police Department has logged at least 25 cases at the address for incidents ranging from city nuisance code and marijuana violations to vandalism and aggravated batteries, according to the city’s case.
Last summer, 37-year-old Issac Lewis was killed in a shooting at the club that also injured a 28-year-old woman.
In January, a person was shot in the back there.
In March, bullets hit a vehicle after gunfire broke out in the parking lot.
“The business at 7007 E. Harry is a danger to the community due to the ongoing violent and criminal activity occurring at the location,” according to the court filings, which ask for the property to “be enjoined as a common nuisance” under a state statute that allows that designation for locations where unlawful activity occurs.
“Because unlicensed drinking and entertainment establishments do not comply with any safety regulations, the citizens of Wichita will suffer irreparable harm if the business is allowed to continue.”
The city also wants to seize all alcohol, the sound system, disc jockey equipment, cooking equipment, coolers and cups, credit card scanners, metal detectors, crowd control devices and other items in the building and slap the property’s landlord with a $25,000 fine.
A hearing in the case is scheduled for Tuesday.
The city’s case names the property address; the man who runs the club, Arlando Trotter; and the property’s landlord, A. Al Wakil, and his company Via Fone Inc. as defendants.
Attempts to contact Trotter by phone were unsuccessful. He did not respond to an Eagle reporter’s Facebook messages.
Wakil, the landlord, told The Eagle last week that he had not yet been served with any court papers associated with the city’s case. But, he said, he has talked in the past with Wichita police officers who contacted him to set up a nuisance abatement plan after some crimes occurred on the property.
He said he’s never been to the club, is not involved in its operation and that he told the officers he couldn’t terminate Trotter’s lease without justification.
He says it’s unfair for the city to try to enforce the law through him.
The city contends Wakil was notified that the property is a nuisance but refused to do anything about it.
“If somebody comes in and breaks the law, why am I as an individual asked to enforce the law” instead of the police department? Wakil said during his Eagle interview, adding that Trotter’s lease is up this month and he doesn’t plan to renew it.
“They’re punishing me for what he does. That doesn’t make sense.”
The city legal department responded to a request for comment on the case through Wichita police spokesman Officer Charley Davidson, who said:
“This location has been a problem after-hours club, and the WPD continues to work and try to address problem locations. There’s been shootings and homicides at this location. So we’re continuing to work to try to make the city safer.”
City code requires establishments, including private clubs, be licensed if they want to offer entertainment or serve alcohol. It also requires they have safety designs and plans approved by the Wichita Police Department and a 2 a.m. closing time. Law enforcement must be allowed inside when an establishment is open to the public — something the city’s case says Trotter hasn’t permitted.
Trotter has previously told the police that the club is private and therefore doesn’t need a license to operate, according to the city’s court filings.
The court filings list more than two dozen incidents logged by Wichita police involving 7007 E. Harry since Trotter opened the club in 2017. Many are nuisance reports documenting large numbers of people as well as food and alcohol service at the club, that it is open past 2 a.m., that it charges an entrance fee, and that patrons often don’t clear out until between 4 and 6 a.m.
Last month, the city’s court filings say, two undercover officers went into the club on two consecutive nights, were each charged between $10 and $20 to enter and bought $10 alcoholic drinks from the bar. They observed a “bar-like atmosphere” inside that included dance floors, DJs playing music and patrons “openly smoking marijuana and rolling ... marijuana cigarettes.”
Staff at the club scanned the officers’ IDs and checked them with metal detectors before allowing them in, but “there was no log or sign-in or membership required for admission,” the filings say.
The next weekend, on Oct. 26 and 27, police watched the club one night and served a search warrant the next. On the first night, a witness told police that a person “was beaten and stomped inside the club” and another person reported to police that she was “battered in the parking lot ... and her car was vandalized,” according to the court filings.
On Oct. 27 — the night that the search warrant was served — officers “found large amounts of alcohol in its original packaging” in the club and an employee in possession of marijuana, the court filings say.
Less than two hours after police served the warrant, “a person was shot in the shoulder while in the parking lot of the business.”
According to court documents, other crimes reported at the club include:
- A disturbance with a gun on Dec. 15, 2018, where officers saw “numerous people running in the parking lot”
- A disturbance with shots fired on May 26, 2018, where police “witnessed security officers with guns drawn”
- A disturbance with a gun on April 1, 2018, where people were seen “running from the parking lot, but a weapon was not located”
- A report from a woman who said someone fired shots into her occupied vehicle on March 31, 2018
- Cases of alcohol and marijuana “packaged for sale” that were seized as officers served a search warrant at the property on Dec. 12, 2017
Court records show Trotter is currently facing criminal charges in Sedgwick County District Court related to liquor law violations and maintaining a public nuisance at the club last month. He’s been summoned to court to appear on the charges Dec. 3 and does not currently have a defense attorney listed in that case file.
In the past, Trotter has been convicted of a variety of club-related violations in Wichita Municipal Court that were later vacated on appeal, court records show.
Amy Renee Leiker: 316-268-6644, @AmyReneeLeiker
This story was originally published November 19, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
