The owners of Mary’s Bar testified on Thursday before the City Beer Board that two calls were made to Chattanooga Police alerting of a large crowd prior to a mass shooting on McCallie Avenue.
The owners said the calls were made at 1:35 a.m. and 1:45 a.m.
Police said they got a call of shots fired at 2:37 a.m. on Sunday, June 5.
Three people were killed and 14 injured in the incident in which 66 shell casings were found at the scene. Some people were hit by cars trying to flee the scene.
Mary's Bar was charged with five violations. Four were dismissed, including operation of an unruly place.
One violation was sustained - Use of the premise not authorized by permit. That was because their beer license was expired when the incident occurred. They renewed it on June 15. The business was penalized for this with a suspension of the beer license for three days starting Friday, June 24, through June 26.
Beer Board members saw about four minutes of video taken from a cell phone, then most members of the board sided with the owners. Co-owner Willie Gholston described the large crowd building up around his business around 1 a.m. He said his bar is geared to ages of 25 and up for women and 35 and older for men. People in the large crowd that was gathering were younger and not his usual customers. He said it came from somewhere else, starting downtown where a giant crowd was at a cigar bar that closed early because of the mob. Then they kept gathering and moving, he said, and stopped at a Mr. Zip gas station. The entire group moved again and continued to build when it stopped around Mary’s Bar and Grill, 2125 McCallie Ave. Mr. Gholston said young adults used to be spread out at nights, but now he said they move in groups since many bars catering to their age group such as Skyzoo, have closed, there is no gathering spot.
Co-owner Demetrius Wilson testified that people in the large crowd were happy, but she saw a traffic problem with the people blocking the street and parking lot exits. Because she did not see it as an emergency situation, she used her cell phone to call the police about the traffic issues. The beer code requires that disorders are called in to police from a landline that will automatically identify where the call is coming from for a quick response. Ms. Wilson made two calls to report the traffic issues, and to preempt problems that could arise from large number of people. She said she told the dispatcher that she did not know where the crowd had come from and that it was scarry, but that everyone was happy. She reported that they were blocking traffic. No one saw the guy with the gun show up. She said the first call she made was at 1:35 and the second at 1:45 a.m. before the bar started closing. One of Mary’s security guards also called police about the same time, it was stated. The shootings started an hour later. Sergeant Jason Wood, beer inspector, could not verify those calls, but said the first incident report was made at 1:48 a.m.
That night when Mary’s was in the process of closing Mr. Gholson told the board that people had started leaving at around 1:45 a.m. and the last out the door was at 2:27 a.m. The employees were moving equipment inside the building and the lights were out, he said, when the shooting started. But around that time, multiple calls were made to 911 and they were all written up using one complaint number so individual calls cannot be verified.
The first record of a call Sgt. Wood could find prior to the shooting, he said, was made at 2:18. This confusion illustrates the importance of calling from a land line. Sgt. Wood also did not know the response time of police after the calls. He told the board that this was the same night as Riverbend and of a second shooting that took place downtown.
Mr. Gholston said after the shots, he first checked on people and by then police were already there. He said no one thought, after the bar had closed, to run back inside the bar to use the landline.
Another problem was discovered when he received the citation from police. That was when he realized that his beer permit had expired, so at the time of the incident, the bar was selling beer illegally. The owner showed the board a valid beer permit Thursday morning, however it was dated June 15, 2022 - after the incident occurred on June 8.
The city’s surveillance cameras in that area were not working that night, but video was available from social media. The board was shown a four-minute video of the chaos. It showed a large crowd loitering everywhere outside and around Mary’s. It showed cars “burning” in the midst of the crowds creating clouds of smoke, people sitting on cars and shouting, then a barrage of shots and people falling before the video was stopped. Then three or four minutes later calls started coming to 911. Sgt. Wood said the first call for shots fired came at 2:37 a.m.
In the time for public comment a long-time employee who has worked there since 2008, before the new owners came, said the business had been bought to keep it in the community since it is considered to be a gathering place. He said it is run by good people who feed the homeless and give bikes to kids in the neighborhood at Christmas. He said the city should consider offering employees of Mary’s Bar and Grill counseling for experiencing the traumatic and emotional events of that night. The bar really is not how it appeared in the news, he said.