The Chattanooga Beer Board on Thursday, was trying to send a clear message to Khuram Ramzanali, the owner of Mystik Food Mart at 2413 4th Ave. At the last beer board meeting a letter of reprimand was put in the company’s file for failure to renew its beer permit from January through November 2021. A long list of serious violations was carried over from that meeting on Jan. 20 until the meeting on Feb. 3 when the owner was supposed to appear to answer questions.
The meeting on Thursday morning was the second time that Mr. Ramzanali could not make time to personally give explanations to the board. Instead, the manager of the store was sent.
The city’s intent was not to individually judge the six violations presented Thursday, said Assistant City Attorney Melinda Foster. Only a few violations were chosen to serve as examples to show a pattern that the business has been operating as a disorderly place. There have been many other police calls and reports documented for the location since 2017. That is when the Chattanooga Police Department began putting up Real Time Intelligence Center (RTIC) cameras. They are placed according to where statistics show the greatest incidence of violent crime occur, said Sgt. Benjamin Piazzo with the Chattanooga Police real-time intelligence department.
He testified that video which captured violent activity shown at the beer board meeting came from a RTIC camera mounted to a phone pole across from the East Lake Courts. These cameras are monitored by officers at a central location where they can be controlled. The cameras look at specific locations every five seconds and then, based on calls to the police about where crimes are occurring, officers can take control and face a camera toward that direction and zoom in and out.
The camera which captures images at Mystik Food Mart has been there since 2019 when use of these cameras in Chattanooga started. Statistics are reviewed every six months. That camera has never been removed because it is considered to be a hot spot with a high concentration of violent crime, said Sgt. Piazzo, and he said it is used more than any other in the city. It has recorded many incidents and one homicide there already, said beer inspector Sgt. Jason Woods. Calls about this business are in the double digits each week, said the officer.
The penalties given Thursday were based on multiple instances for each of two different violations of the Chattanooga Beer Code. They are “operates as a disorderly place” and the “failure to telephone and reports of disorders.” The six examples that had been chosen to present to beer board spanned time from December 2020 to November 2021.
On Dec. 30, 2020, police responded to a shots fired call. They determined that a shot had been fired into an SUV parked beside one of the gas pumps. Using video recorded by the RTIC camera the car was located two days later in Hixson. There was a call made to police to report the incident, but it did not come from the store’s land line so that the number and location could immediately be identified, as the beer code requires.
On May 6, 2021, a simple assault took place in the parking lot with a man being punched in the face, all caught on video. That man declined to press charges. The business failed to report the incident to police.
On June 13, 2021, a woman pulled a gun and threatened her sister and her sister’s friend about a personal argument regarding a lifestyle choice. There was no phone number associated with Mystic Mart made to report this incident.
On June 24, 2021, a man in the parking lot was shot in the ankle during a drive-by shooting. He hobbled to the door and employees cared for him until medics responded and he was taken to Erlanger. The video showed a lot of people congregating in the parking lot, ducking and running for cover, including a baby in a stroller. Police found holes in a parked car and 10 holes and shell casings in the roll-up doors on the Beauty World salon next door. Again, there was a failure to report this incident from the business phone, however, the manager told the board he had pushed the ADT alarm because it was the fasted way, then he called using his personal cell phone.
On August 7, 2021, a personal robbery occurred in the parking lot. The victim was first confronted near the exit from I-24 by an individual looking for money. The suspect was given $3. The victim went into the store for help but when he exited, the suspect, “acting crazy,” approached the man again putting his hands in pockets trying to find $10 which was owed to a third person. Still photos taken with the RTIC camera were shown of this incident.
A weapons and drug violation happened outside the store on Nov. 21, 2021. The camera recorded a man with his hand on a gun sticking out of a front pocket. He was sitting on the window sill, just outside the front door of the store smoking marijuana and making drug deals for two hours. That gave police time to gather to watch and safely address the situation. When he was arrested packages of crack cocaine were found in his pockets.
Comments from Attorney John Wolfe, representing Mystic Mart in response to the evidence shown and testimony heard, was that the crimes occurring at the store were random and could not be foreseen. He said there was no connection between the store selling beer and the drive-by shooting. He said there was no proof that the clerks who failed to call police were aware of what was going on in the parking lot of the high crime area. The clerk had to know before calling, he repeated for each incident. Board Member Vince Butler noted that the Chattanooga Beer Code specifies that a business is responsible for its parking lot as well as the building.
The manager of the business since 2019 appeared in place of Mr. Ramzanali, the owner. He answered questions and told the board that he knows the store is not in a safe area, but the business cannot afford to hire off duty police officers for private security. There is a security camera in the parking lot, but he said the clerk would have to watch it full-time to know what is happening there instead of taking care of customers. He told the board that the employees know the people who loiter in the parking lot by name but are afraid to identify them to police for fear of what will happen to them personally. There is no personal interaction with those who loiter and employees try not to get into any conflict for fear of retaliation.
The manager said he has asked the police to drive through the property because it causes the people in the lot to scatter, but otherwise has not asked for advice of how to control the situation. The police are too short-handed to continually sit and watch that store and Attorney Foster said it is not their responsibility to protect private property and keep it safe. Patrol officers in the past have recommended putting up no loitering and no trespassing signs, an inexpensive way to help, but Mr. Wolfe observed that would not stop a drive-by shooting or other random incidents.
“It seems like the only thing to help is to have private security,” said Board Member Christopher Keene. He said the owner knows what neighborhood he is in and shouldn’t be there if he cannot afford to run it the right way.
The board voted to issue a 14-day suspension of the beer license as a penalty for the failure on three occasions, to phone in reports of disorders. Another 14-day suspension was given for the charge of operating a disorderly place. That 14-day penalty will run consecutively with the first penalty. During that time it was suggested for the business to work with the police to find a way to bring order and calm to the property.