Amy McCraken stood in the sunshine at Broadway and 11th Avenue, shaking her head as she ticked off the body count she saw outside Vinyl nightclub early Saturday morning.
We were in front of Vinyl’s bright red doors as she pointed toward the intersection.
“There was one person in the middle of the street who they dragged back onto this sidewalk,” said McCraken, who lives above the nightclub with her two young daughters. “Another was by those three parking meters in front of the Broadway Plaza Hotel, another one at the corner under the Arby’s sign, one on the other side of Arby’s, and a fifth across the parking lot near that Dumpster.
“You can still see the blood over by the Arby’s sign.”
This weekend saw the latest mix of violence and night life dogging patrons and owners of Denver clubs, plus our officials tasked with public safety. Five people were shot and wounded outside Vinyl, including one sent to Denver Health in critical condition.
Vinyl, owned by local club mogul Regas Christou, is near Shelter, another Christou club that two years ago saw an altercation that led to the drive-by killing of Denver Bronco Darrent Williams.
I’m not suggesting that Denver is starting to resemble Deadwood, S.D., circa 1870. But when five people are bleeding in the street outside a nightclub, you can’t help thinking in terms of a gunfight in an Old West saloon. The only things missing are the brass spittoons and some guy in a derby hat pleading, “Don’t shoot, I’m only the piano player.”
“It’s not just Vinyl, there’s fighting at all the clubs in this area,” McCraken said. “I actually think Vinyl has great security, but what are you going to do when people start showing up with guns?”
If you’re Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman, you can bar your officers from providing off-duty security at certain clubs, including Christou’s, citing the “matter of the violence.”
Given that police are tasked with helping to prevent violence, that sounds akin to banning vice cops from spending time around pimps and meth dealers. Then again, maybe I’m not up on the subtleties of law enforcement.
Restaurants can be closed for repeated health-code violations. Because two-legged vermin can do even more harm than four-legged ones, why not yank a club’s liquor license in the wake of repeated violence on its premises?
Yet that idea has limits. In the wake of Saturday’s shootings, Christopher Christou, Regas’ nephew, e-mailed The Post. A hospitality-industry veteran, he rightly noted a problem plaguing clubs: Trouble simmers at one spot, then erupts when the parties hop to another club, which gets saddled with the blame.
“When we speak up and/or catch people with weapons outside the clubs, remember that it’s outside and not in,” he wrote. “Are we bad because we catch it?”
On Sunday, Michael Rodriguez waited at the bus stop in front of Arby’s, just a few feet down from a spot spackled with blood. “This stuff is crazy,” he said. “It’s why I don’t go to clubs. Liquor and hotheads, man. It’s not a good mix.”
Up Broadway from Vinyl sits the 11th Avenue Hotel. You could see the second-story window punctured by a bullet hole Saturday. For what it’s worth, you could also see a small American flag behind it.
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Just hold the gunfire.
Reach William Porter at wporter@denverpost.com or 303-954-1877.
