GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — The owner of Electric Tequila has been charged after a shooting outside of the business resulted in two injuries and mass chaos in the early hours of last Saturday morning.
Bobby Bullins, of Eden, was charged with:
- allowing affray to occur on licensed premises
- allowing controlled substance violations to occur on licensed premises
- failing to superintend licensed premises
Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan says an entertainment ordinance could give teeth to enforcing more rules at clubs and bars. For instance, Electric Tequila opened up the day after the shooting, and the city didn’t have the power to stop it.
“It is truly a miracle that nobody was killed on Friday night,” Vaughan said.
She says a police officer who responded to Electric Tequila last weekend told her he had never seen so many bullet casings at one scene.
“Two women were shot. They were injured in the leg, and they will recover completely, but that was by the grace of God. How people weren’t killed is a miracle,” she said.
Greensboro police have responded dozens of times to Electric Tequila this year alone, and Mayor Vaughan is concerned about several other similar businesses.
There were two shootings at Ghost Bar Kitchen & Cocktails in June, and one of them was fatal.
“One that I am willing to name is Ghost Bar on West Market Street, and what is particularly frustrating about that location is the property is owned by the same company that owned Electric Tequila, and I hope that they saw what happened and realized what could happen over at Ghost Bar,” Vaughan. said.
After Electric Tequila reopened last weekend, police had to respond again to make hundreds of people leave since it was over legal capacity.
“Because we have a number of bars here in Greensboro, and a lot of our surrounding areas don’t, people from elsewhere come here for entertainment,” she said.
Vaughan has proposed a nightlife or entertainment ordinance twice. However, the ordinances were not passed.
“We’re going to look back at the old one, dust it off, see how we can maybe tweak it a little, and see if we can get that passed,” she said.
In prior years, business owners wanted to distance themselves from liability that happens in their parking lots, but Vaughan says it’s time to make sure everyone accepts responsibility.
“One thing that I feel is that if you have an establishment that has had violence that you should be required to put cameras outside of your property thatGPD can tap into,” she said.
Electric Tequila did not have outdoor cameras.
“We are not asking people to put cameras inside of their business, but we see an awful lot happening on the outside of businesses in parking lots,” Vaughan said.
She also feels businesses who could see large crowds should have to hire their own security.
“I think the owner needs to be responsible for security. The city should not be providing free security for these places,” Vaughan said.
The mayor says adding cameras and security with an ordinance is one step to addressing gun violence, especially in a year where Greensboro has seen a record number of homicides.
