Pittsfield Bars Raising Security After Shooting Incidents
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Metal detectors are coming to city bars.
Johnny's Beach Club on Wahconah Street has become the first bar to have a full metal detector and the staff at Lach's Lounge will soon have metal detecting wands.
The moves come in the wake of separate shootings involving the two establishments. The two owners outlined their new security plans to the Licensing Board on Monday.
"It's getting out of control. Bars are going to have to get wands or metal detectors to stay in business," said Licensing Board member Richard Stockwell.
Johnny's Beach Club owner John Giardina says entering his nightclub will now be similar to entering a courthouse. He said he spent upward of $5,000 to install the full-body security system and anyone who sets it off will be searched by staff.
"It is the exact same set up as the courthouse," Giardina said. "You don't want to do it but at this point, we have no choice."
Giardina was brought before the Licensing Board after a 20-year-old man was shot on Sept. 25. The Licensing Board last month ordered the bar to close at midnight as the members waited for more information to make a ruling. On Monday, the board reversed that order, allowing the bar to stay open until 2 a.m. again — though only by a 3-2 vote margin.
"I am troubled that this is a major incident that happened at your bar," said board member Diane Pero, who along with Dana Doyle voted against restoring the hours. "You have a clientele that seems to bring trouble to your bar."
The board had a question over whether the shooting happened inside the bar or not.
Attorney Mark Brennan, representing Giardina, said staff did not hear the shot nor did they know what happened until the end of the night, when a patron said something about it. The bartender then called Giardina and the police to report the incident. The next day Giardina provided police with video surveillance of the incident.
"We've done everything we could do as a license holder," Brennan said.
However, Police Lt. Michael Grady says he is "confident" that everyone was aware of what happened and that police should have been notified earlier. After watching the tape, board member Thomas Campoli said it was very clear that there was a loud noise — likely the shooting.
"We should have gotten a phone call right then and there," Grady said.
After the noise, a man is seen limping out of the bar, presumably after being shot in the foot. At the last hearing, Brennan argued that the man may have had the gun in his waistband and it may have mistakenly gone off.
David Moody, 23, was seen on film stuffing a weapon into his pants and was later arrested and charged with unlicensed possession of a firearm.
Grady said Police are getting little to no cooperation from witnesses at the scene but have received "100 percent" cooperation from Giardina.
"I don't think you should be punished. You cooperated with police," Stockwell said.
Meanwhile, on Fenn Street, staff at Lach's Lounge will soon be equipped with wands to keep weapons out.
Grady said police responded there for a disturbance on Oct. 31 at 1:13 in the morning. Upon arrival, officers found the bar being cleared out by employees and were told the two parties involved in the disturbance had left.
Shortly after, police were called to Lincoln Street where one man had been shot. Anthony Robertson, 33, was arrested nearly two weeks later and charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building and carrying a firearm without a license.
Grady told the Licensing Board that when officers first arrived, a staff member at Lach's Lounge said he saw a gun but the man with it had left. When another officer returned after the shooting to investigate, that same staff member's story changed, Grady said, and that the man with the weapon was in the bar when police first arrived.
"It needs to be the first things that gets told," Grady said.
Campoli said if staff told police about the gun in the first place, the shooting may never have occurred.
Owner Arthur Beattie Jr. said he was out of town when the incident happened but since then, he placed an order for wands. He doesn't dispute that there was a gun in the bar but it is unclear whether or not the man with the weapon was inside when police arrived.
"I'm going to get wands to make sure [weapons] don't get in," Beattie said. "I don't want it to happen again."
Unlike Johnny's Beach Club, which has a sordid history that the board has had to deal with, Lach's Lounge has never had a complaint lodged against it. The board opted not to dish out any type of punishment to the Beattie.
"We're putting you on notice," Doyle told Beattie, warning him that should another similar complaint come before the board she'd be looking to reduce hours.
The lack of punishment for both establishments did yield one objection. Ellen Mary D'Agostino, who frequently voices opinions on city matter to various boards and commissions, called on the board to take public safety more serious.
"It's out of control. These clubs are the dark places in the community where irresponsible behavior flourishes," D'Agostino said.
She also opposed a change in Sunday hours for Cim's Tavern. The board approved the change allowing the bar to open as early as 10 a.m. on Sunday, an hour earlier.
Tags: license board, shooting,
