Club U, the popular nightspot where a patron was fatally stabbed last month, will remain closed as the District moves ahead with efforts to permanently revoke its liquor license, a city regulatory board decided yesterday.
The six-member D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, citing repeated violence inside or near Club U, voted unanimously to continue a temporary suspension that was imposed after the Feb. 13 killing of Terrence Brown, 31.
"They need to shut down," says Alfreda Brown, a sister of Club U patron Terrence Brown, who was fatally stabbed Feb. 13 in or near the club.
(Photos Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)
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The action came after a series of hearings to decide whether Club U should be reopened. The board voted to keep it shut until hearings in April on revoking the license.
Attorneys for the owners of the club, at 14th and U streets NW in the Frank D. Reeves Municipal Center, said they will appeal the board's decision to the D.C. Court of Appeals.
Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) said in an e-mail that the board made "the right decision." He added: "The security and well-being of people who live and work in the neighborhood needs to our primary concern, and the Board acted in the best interests of those citizens."
Charles A. Burger, chairman of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, said the decision was swayed by requests from Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey and D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) to close the club. Brown's stabbing was one of several violent acts that happened "simultaneously," Burger said. A woman was knocked unconscious, two other patrons were involved in an altercation and shots were fired, he said.
"It was a potentially dangerous situation that could have been much worse," Burger said.
The board cited a list of violent offenses in or near the club since March 2003, including three homicides, two stabbings and at least two assaults on police officers.
Although several clubs are within three blocks of Club U, Graham said the board had valid reasons to single it out. "It's not about go-go music and neighboring clubs; it's about this homicide," he said.
Members of Brown's family said they were satisfied with the decision. Brown's mother, Christine Brown, and his two older sisters said that they are convinced that he was stabbed at least five times on the dance floor after an altercation and not where his body was found, in the atrium. They said Brown told the club's security officers that he had been stabbed. Family members and friends who were at the club said that bouncers dumped Brown in the building's atrium, where he bled to death. No one has been arrested in the case.
"They need to shut down," said Alfreda Brown, a sister of the victim.
Warren C. Williams Jr., one of the club's owners, and Jimmie Lee Parker, its head of security, said many steps are taken to ensure safety. They said the club screens patrons with a metal detector, a wand and a pat-down search by security staff members. Security is so tight that it would have been impossible for someone to get a knife inside the premises, they said, adding the stabbing must have taken place in the atrium after Brown was escorted out of the club.
A. Scott Bolden, an attorney for Williams Jr. and his father, co-owner Warren C. Williams Sr., said that the board's decision was influenced by political pressure and that Club U "has to fight on." He said the city must accept some responsibility for any violence at the club, which is in a municipal building that is monitored by the city's Protective Services officers.
"There are no winners in this," Bolden said. "My client still doesn't have his license, and there was a loss of life."
