Youngstown bar violence plan on hold as violence continues
Once again, Youngstown police are investigating a shooting that ended the life of a 25 year old man and wounded three others. It happened in the parking lot of Vibez Restaurant and Banquet center.
"It was probably about 200 cars in the parking lot," said Vibez Restaurant and Banquet center owner, Brandon Brown. The shooting took place around 3 a.m, half an hour after the business was closed for the evening. The owner tells 21 News he witnessed everything.
"I saw two guys engage with each other, grabbing each other with hands and next thing you know, they started firing at each other," said Brown. "I was afraid for myself and my staff that were still here," he said.
The owner now trying to work with Youngstown police to help protect his business.
"There was nobody inside the establishment, security was making sure people got out of the parking lot and somebody decided to pull up and cause trouble," Brown said.
You may recall back in December of last year, a shooting happened at this same location, in the same way, outside after hours and resulting in one dead.
Since then, Youngstown police formed an initiative against gun violence, formerly referred to as Violence Interrupters.
This initiative teamed up police and civilians who would go into bars to deescalate potentially dangerous situations, but that initiative's been put on hold.
"The powers that be aren't really comfortable with us being quote unquote, front line and possible positions of being harmed," said Will "Shimmie" Miller, United Returning Citizens community engagement specialist. "So, we're focusing more on prevention and trying to really establish relationships with people that we deem high risk," he said.
Miller tells 21 News he's still trying to work with police for the sake of the city and finding ways to interact with youth that might be headed down the wrong path.
Our calls made to the police chief were not returned, the mayor was unavailable and the law director says he could not comment because the shooting is still under investigation.
