nothin New Trouble At Hip-Hop Clubs | New Haven Independent

New Trouble At Hip-Hop Clubs

A man was shot outside a Center Street nightclub early Sunday, as police continued to wrestle with violence in the entertainment district.

Sunday morning’s troubles occurred at two clubs with a history of trouble, Club X (formerly known as Center Street Lounge) and the Lazy Lizard.

The trouble began around 1:30 a.m., according to police spokesman Officer David Hartman.

Here’s what he said happened (with his precise words in quotation marks):

First the cops encountered a hundred or so patrons fleeing from a hip-hop party” at Crown Street’s Lazy Lizard Nightclub. People said someone had fired a gun inside the club, though police couldn’t determine if that really happened, or if someone breaking glass from a dropped bottle set off the panic.”

Either way, Crown Street filled with fleeing bar-goers, and several fights broke out. A group of club-goers fled down an alley to George Street, where cops caught up with them in front of the New Haven Hotel and found a .45 caliber pistol on him.

While all that was happening, a report of gunfire sent cops rushing over to Exhibit X/Center Street Lounge at Center and Orange streets, where another hip-hop party was letting out.

They found 24-year-old Mandella Davis shot, hit once in the lower left leg. Cops found him in a private car whose driver was headed to the hospital. Officers stopped the car and summoned EMTs. They arrived quickly and treated him for a non-life threatening wound.” Davis told cops someone shot him while he was standing in a crowd” on the street.

A woman who ran to Center and Church Streets collapsed in front of arriving officers. It was thought she’d been shot as well, but that turned out not to be the case. She was treated for a panic attack. Both she and Mr. Davis were transported by ambulance to local hospitals.”

Click here, here and here for recent coverage of the city’s efforts to contain problems at city nightclubs. Officials have a package of proposals for cracking down, including creation of a taxable district to require and fund extra police protection; read about the arguments for and against that idea here.

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