ATLANTA — The owner of Elleven45 Lounge, the Buckhead club where a tragic mass shooting occurred, is fighting to keep the business open amidst legal challenges.
A Thursday marked an intense turn of events when the owner, Djibril Dafe, was arrested mid-hearing.
The arrest happened during a court session concerning a lawsuit filed by the city of Atlanta, which aims to shut down the club permanently following a Mother’s Day shooting that left two people dead and four others injured.
Channel 2′s Michael Seiden reported that the arrest occurred three hours into the hearing when the judge revealed Dafe had an active warrant for failing to appear in court for another matter.
It happened just before the attorneys for the city of Atlanta were preparing to call their next witness.
Dafe was in court to defend his livelihood as the city sought the club’s closure.
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“The city bears responsibility to bring this action for the benefit and the interest of the citizens to prevent further harm and to make sure what happened on Mother’s Day does not happen again,” Pat Dixon III, an attorney for the city of Atlanta, said.
“In the initial complaint, the city focuses on what they describe as 12 acts of violence over the past few years. The evidence will show that all these acts were actually associated with the respondents and were isolated incidents,” Terry Bailey, Dafe’s attorney, said.
The city began the morning by calling several Atlanta police officers to testify, including the first responder to the May shooting.
One officer described the scene as “complete chaos,” mentioning multiple injured individuals and bottles and money scattered everywhere. He also stated that Elleven45 Lounge has been seen as “the epicenter of crime in that area.”
In their defense, attorneys for the club highlighted the measures taken since the shooting, including the addition of metal detectors and the club’s voluntary closure for the past 60 days to review policies and procedures.
Attorneys on both sides anticipate that the hearing will span two days.
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