There's been another shooting outside Mr. Lucky, a Queen Anne hot spot popular with the thug crowd. It happened after closing on Nov. 12 in the parking lot of the bar across the street from Key Arena, when one guy was set upon by a bunch of other guys who were beating the hell out of him.
A bouncer from the joint stepped in to break it up, and the beating victim took the opportunity to pull out a gun and start blasting away, said police spokeswoman Debra Brown.
And as usual with this crowd, the shooter was a terrible shot and hit the bouncer instead of his attackers, according to the police report about the incident. The bouncer was shot in one thigh, and the bullet passed through and lodged in his other thigh.
The gang unit is in charge of the investigation, and they'll have their work cut out for them. Following the hip-hop code of silence, pretty much everybody was gone by the time police arrived.
One couple who live near Mr. Lucky aren't surprised. "He's (owner Kyriakos Kyrkos) had five shootings and three beatings we know of," said the wife. The couple preferred to remain anonymous, she said, because they fear retaliation from Kyrkos.
One beating in a parking lot next to the club resulted in a death that was ruled self defense, police say, and one shooting next to the club almost two years ago resulted in a man being paralyzed. The man hadn't even been in the bar; he was just some poor dude who got hit by loose shot while walking home with his girlfriend to their apartment in Lower Queen Anne. That case remains open.
The anonymous couple said they heard three shots when the bouncer was hit on the 12th, but they've heard a lot more than that outside the joint in the almost two years since they moved into their apartment. "We had called (police) a week earlier (than the latest shooting) about a mob of people fighting," the wife said for example.
The 911 operator was less than sympathetic. The wife said the operator told her that she lived in a neighborhood that had a bar and that she should move if she didn't like it.
That's probably a valid point in some circumstances, but it hardly seems fair that the wife got blown off by the 911 operator. After all, the gang unit has interview the woman and her husband in the past about Mr. Lucky mayhem, she said.
Besides police, the wife said, she's also called everybody else in the city who might help. That includes the mayor's office, the Washington State Liquor Control Board (which has had 10 complaints about the joint this year), the Fire Department because of overcrowding, the Uptown Alliance, the Greater Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce and even Kyrkos himself, who is none too pleased to hear from her, she said.
The wife has also been in contact with the City Attorney's Office, which suggested she keep a Mr. Lucky log to keep track of the kind of mayhem normally found only in Pioneer Square. The log is getting pretty full of entries, and both the woman and her husband are astounded that Mr. Lucky is still open.
Tamera Soukup, a lawyer who is the West Precinct liaison from the City Attorney's Office, is sympathetic. But shutting a bar down isn't that easy, she notes. "It's a difficult situation because the activity (mayhem) is actually out on the parking lot," Soukup said.
Besides, she said, Kyrkos has followed suggestions to take more of an active role in keeping a lid on the chaos in the parking lots after closing. The anonymous couple confirmed that, but they said the bouncers simply push the trouble makers into an area outside of the club's parking lots and leave them there.
Soukup said one way a problem bar can be closed down is through a nuisance abatement, as was done several years ago at the Iguana Cantina on the waterfront. But that's very difficult for the city to pull off, she added. "The fact that a property owner has taken active steps to work with the city to alleviate those problems defeats a nuisance case."
Over-serving people in a bar is grounds for license revocation as well, but the Liquor Control Board has to take the lead, Soukup said. The anonymous couple said they have seen countless people who are stumbling drunk when the leave Mr. Lucky, and a Nov. 16 police report documents that a Bothell woman was not only completely drunk, she walked out of the joint with two drinks in her hands around 12:30 in the morning that Wednesday.
Proving a bar is responsible for hammered customers isn't that easy, though. The Liquor Board only has four inspectors in Seattle, and they have to witness someone being over-served, Soukup said.
Even then, the inspectors have to issue a warning the first time, and a decision to yank the liquor license after multiple violations can be appealed by the owner for around six months. "It sounds a lot easier than it actually is," she said of closing a joint.
The Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce has suggested Krykos turn the joint into a sports bar and drop the hip-hop music, which usually glorifies violence but doesn't cause it, according to its fans.
The suggestion was made in a letter endorsing a permit to allow Kyrkos to run a beer garden outside the club before the Sonics playoff games last summer. The anonymous couple said he kept the beer garden open after at least one game and until 11:30 p.m.
Soukup said private citizens can bring a nuisance case against Mr. Lucky in small claims court. The potential fine is $4,000 per citizen, she said. "We were thinking of filing a private nuisance complaint," the wife in the anonymous couple said, "but it got to be too much of a hassle."
Still, it rankles the couple that mayhem has continued at the club. "He has no interest in the neighborhood whatsoever," the wife said of Kyrkos. "All he wants to do is make money."
There's something else going on that might bring an end to the club, though. The man who was paralyzed by a shot allegedly fired by a Mr. Lucky customer is suing Diamond Parking, where the shot was fired, the Mr. Lucky club and KUBE-FM, the radio station sponsoring the hip-hop nights that were going on at the joint when the man was shot and paralyzed.[[In-content Ad]]
