Gunfire, large parties in parking lots worry Montgomery businesses

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WAKA) — Business owners along East South Boulevard say late-night parties in shopping center parking lots are putting lives and livelihoods at risk.

Angela Exford, president of the South Montgomery Neighborhood Alliance, said the large crowds often escalate into violence.

“People are gathering in the parking lot and it becomes a large gathering, and sometimes it escalates in violence and gunfire,” Exford said. “We had a lot of gunfire out here in this plaza multiple weeks during this past month. And we are concerned that people will lose their lives.”

The Lion Den Cigar Club, located in Bell Oaks Plaza, has been among the hardest hit. Operations Manager Marquetca Iverson said the gatherings often involve reckless driving and weapons.

“They’re crowding the parking lot and … basically hitting donuts and driving fast and carrying guns,” Iverson said.

Glass storefronts at the plaza are riddled with bullet holes. Brent White, a military veteran and owner of The Lion Den Cigar Club, said his business was recently damaged when gunfire shattered a front window.

“Somebody’s windshield got busted and there were eight or nine cars that got damaged one night,” White said. “This weekend we had our whole window shot out. The police woke me up about 5 a.m. and told me to come down here because my building was not secure. Three bullets that went through the outside and traveled inside the building. We’ve just been lucky no one has been in the building.”

White said his business has been open for just over a year and his customers are people aged 30 and older who are just trying to relax after work. The problems typically arise after his business closes. In the early morning hours, crowds as large as 200 people gather in the lot. He worries someone will eventually be killed.

“I understand that the kids don’t really have anywhere to go, but there’s a few troublemakers, and when you have a crowd that large, then it tends to be a problem,” he said. “Somebody’s child might get killed, and we’ve seen two young girls get shot out here in the parking lot. They weren’t even in it — they just happened to be standing around.”

White added that the issue isn’t limited to his location. “It’s across the street, it’s up there in the LongHorn parking lot, it’s over there in the Woodley Road parking lot. It’s all the parking lots in this area,” he said.

“We are committed to the business community in the city,” MPD Chief Graboys said at a recent press conference. “We are doing a detail that has our patrol officers checking the businesses during their shifts … and we’ve literally hit almost 400 in just the last three weeks since we started doing it.”

Montgomery Police Chief James Graboys urged parents to take a more active role.

“Know who your children are spending their time with. Know what they’re doing on the Internet. Know what types of activities they’re going to. Are they going out in the middle of the night and getting into trouble? Are they hanging out with that wrong crowd?” Graboys said. “I really want people to get involved with their children’s lives, and maybe even with the different community groups and churches around them, because this is a group effort.”

The shopping center’s owners have installed cameras, cement parking bumpers to discourage drag racing, and more than half a dozen “No Trespassing” signs in an effort to curb the gatherings.

The gunfire has caused thousands of dollars worth of damage to the businesses. Exford said she wants the city to dedicate more police units to the area.

“I would like to see the city place at least three police units on this boulevard at the intersection, Troy Highway, Woodley Road, Norman Bridge, so they would have a quicker response to disband these crowds, and to let them know we cannot gather like this at night. There’s so much going on with violence, and people just don’t know how to act sometimes.” she said.

White said action needs to be taken immediately.

“I’d hate to see some of these young folks or an older elderly person just going to the store or something and getting shot and getting killed. We’ve got to do something now.”

We reached out to MPD to find out more about several shootings that allegedly injured people in the parking lot, and we’re waiting to hear back.

More than 150 shell casings have been found in the plaza parking lot in recent weeks.