Third Slaying At Laurel Club Prompts Calls For Closure

It was nearly 3 a.m., but the go-go band had just played its last song and people were still streaming out of J's Sports Cafe in Laurel when the fight started in the parking lot. No one seems sure how it began. But it ended with gunfire and Travis L. Robinson bleeding to death on the asphalt, police said.

Robinson's fatal shooting Jan. 28 made him the third person in roughly two years to be killed in front of J's. It also marked the latest in a recent spate of killings to follow go-go performances at nightclubs in Prince George's County and the District.

A 17-year-old girl was fatally shot last month at a District go-go hot spot, and a 19-year-old man was slain Christmas morning at a Prince George's club. The deadly incident in Laurel has prompted calls for J's to be closed permanently and has reignited more general concerns about go-go performances.

"The community believes the establishment is a scourge and the liquor license should be revoked, and I echo that sentiment," said Del. Gerron S. Levi (D-Prince George's).

J's closed temporarily after the incident because of several county code enforcement issues, bar co-owner Alex Kim said. The Board of License Commissioners will decide next month whether to hold a public hearing on its liquor license renewal application.

Kim said he hopes to convince the board that changes at J's will make it safer. But neighbors say they want it shut down for good.

A longtime hot spot in the Crystal Plaza shopping center on Route 197, J's was once popular with older neighborhood residents. Sports shows on the multiple TV screens, occasional live bands and pool league tournaments were big draws for regulars. But the atmosphere was noticeably less welcoming after the bar changed hands several times, said neighbor and former patron Donald Dudley.

"Every Friday and Saturday night now, there are shots and shouts and sirens going off from midnight until 4 a.m. there," said Dudley, who lives in an apartment complex across from J's. "I hate to stereotype people, but this is the kind of problem that is associated with go-go music. It's a problem in D.C. It's a problem in Prince George's County. It's a problem everywhere with this music."

Go-go fans and proponents say the problem is not the music but the way security is handled at some clubs that feature go-go. Jauhar Abraham, co-founder of Peaceoholics, a nonprofit group that works to settle disputes and decrease violence among urban youth, said he warned J's owners several times about security problems before the most recent shooting.

Abraham said security workers at go-go shows are sometimes lax in searching patrons, and some have been known to take bribes to allow contraband and underage customers into clubs.

Abraham said his band, Familiar Faces, had played at J's regularly until recently but ended performances there because of tensions over poor security.

"I pulled them out of there because I could see a tragedy coming with the way they were handling situations," Abraham said.