A double shooting at about 9:40 p.m. in the parking lot of Third Base Cafe, 911 Crawford St., involved a patron of the bar and the altercation occurred in the business’s parking lot, according to Hoffman.
Middletown police records obtained by the Journal-News show that officers have been called to the bar 110 times in the past nine years, including a shooting in the bar’s parking lot in October 2015.
In 2015, the city passed a Chronic Nuisance Ordinance that states property owners who receive three nuisance activities or two drug-related charges at the same location will be billed the cost of the public safety responses by the city.
Bar manager April Lewis, whose fiance owns the establishment, told the Journal-News that there are no problems in the bar and that patrons were not part of Monday’s shootings.
“They never came in the bar,” she said. “It was out in the parking lot. All we’re doing is trying to figure it out ourselves.”
Lewis said younger people in the neighborhood were hanging out around the bar’s patio, even though the business closed that area.
“There’s a lot of younger kids in this neighborhood that don’t really have anything to do, so they kinda started congregating around our patio,” Lewis said. “But we shut the patio down around a month ago to dissipate the loitering happening around the patio.”
Employees maintain there had been no disturbances at the bar before police arrived. Surveillance video of the parking lot showed people around a vehicle and then running away from it, police said.
Jaylon Hill was found laying on the ground near a car suffering from a gunshot wound to the upper thigh, according to a police report. Kenneth Williams was also in the parking lot with a gunshot wound to the hand.
About two hours after the shooting at Third Base Cafe, three people were shot about 1.5 miles away in the 300 block of Park Street, according to a police report.
Anthony Peguero, Robert Robinson and Demontez Owensby told police they were walking toward a house at 304 Park St. when someone behind them started shooting. People inside the home told police they heard shots, but did not see anything.
All three victims said they did not see who shot at them, because they were running to get out of the way.
The five victims in both shootings were taken to Atrium Medical Center for treatment, where they were no longer listed in the hospital directory on Tuesday evening. Police told the Journal-News that all five men are expected to recover.
Police declined to say why they believe the Crawford Street and Park Street shootings are connected. Victims in both shootings are not being cooperative with police, according to Hoffman.
Staff Writer Kate Bartley contributed to this report.
