Damage at the front of the Community Bank in Rossville has shifted customers to the back door
Attacks by vandals breaking out windows at local businesses are continuing - even since they succeeded in temporarily shutting down the Bank of America on St. Elmo.
That attack came Wednesday night, and Larry Rose Jr. of Rose Kawasaki on LaFayette Road said he was hit once again on Thursday morning. Mr. Rose said he left his business after leaving for the bank and post office around 9:30 a.m. When he got back around 11:30 a.m., there was a new hole in one of his front windows.
Mr. Rose said that came after damage to his store last year, then again on Oct. 10. In the latter incident, he said he was told by Chattanooga Police that they had gotten at least 40 calls of similar damage. He said that spree apparently began with damage to four businesses in Ringgold, then continued along LaFayette Road and onto Rossville Boulevard. He said there may have been as many as 100 businesses damaged overall.
The Community Bank in Rossville is among the victims of recent attacks. The bank has a large piece of plywood where a window once stood out front. Customers now are directed to enter the bank through a presumably safer way - the back door off Spring Street.
Mr. Rose said the businesses damaged have been on the right side of the LaFayette Road to Rossville Boulevard route going toward Chattanooga as though a front passenger is doing the shooting with a rifle or slingshot and marbles.
He said he stayed late at his business on Wednesday night. After he got home, he was notified by his alarm company after midnight that there was a new strike.
Mr. Rose said he has never been able to find any type of projectile or marble from any attack. He said a recent one left "a hole in the window you could put a pen in" and caused the window to begin to split.
He said one shot went through a cardboard box on the other side of the window, but he still could locate no projectile.
Mr. Rose, who took over the motorcycle business from his father, said on one occasion last year he was at the store late and a shot came through that bounced off a wall and struck the back of his head. He said he also got glass splattered into his face on that occasion.
He said, "Businesses are already struggling due to the COVID, and this is only making things worse for a lot of business people.
"Also, one of these shots could hit somebody in the eye and put their eye out or strike them in the temple and kill them."