A security guard’s request that a large group of people outside Little Haiti International Cuisine on Hyde Park Avenue leave because it was too late for them to get in ended in a mass shooting that left five people shot, one fatally.
Now, even as the security guard, who was stomped, stabbed and shot, remains in the hospital, the restaurant’s fate is in the hands of the Boston Licensing Board, which says it will schedule a meeting next week to decide whether to let the restaurant – closed voluntarily by owner George Craan since the shootings – re-open.
Meanwhile, the franchisee of the 7-Eleven across the street is trying to convince the chain to let him change his closing time from 2 a.m. to midnight because, he says, of all the trouble he, his staff and customers now have because of Little Haiti patrons.
The board held a hearing Thursday morning to consider five violations cited by police: Homicide, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, unlawful possession or use of weapons on or next to the premises, having armed security guards without notifying the board and failure to cooperate with police.
At issue for the licensing board is overall public safety and whether Little Haiti’s owner or staffers could have foreseen the events of Aug. 3 and done anything to prevent them.
Boston Police officers and Craan’s attorney, Tyler Henseler, agreed on the basics of what happened that night, although both sides said there were limits to the details they could provide because the shootings remain under investigation. To date, one man has been charged.
It was a typical “Soleil Sunday” at Little Haiti – pairing Caribbean food with DJs and dancing, with ladies let in for free until 11 p.m., And nothing unusual happened. But then, shortly after midnight, a large group of people, between 50 and 60, began showing up outside, wanting to get in. Craan says it’s possible an event somewhere else let out and people were told they could keep the party going over at his place.
One of the three security guards on duty that night went out to ask them to leave, because they would be unable to get in before the restaurant closed at 1 a.m. That enraged some of the people, who began punching the guard – one after producing a weapon of some kind – and then threw the guard to the ground, where they began stabbing him.
Guns came out, people began firing indiscriminately and by the time police began arriving a few minutes later on reports of shootings, three people, including the first guard, lay on the ground, shot, both in front of Little Haiti and across the street outside the 7-Eleven, where video posted online shows one victim coming from across Hyde Park Avenue and then collapsing. One of the victims found on Hyde Park Avenue had been shot in the chest, another in the back and the third in the leg, Lt. Daniel Pusey of District E-18 said.
And here is where the accounts began to differ.
Pusey said when he arrived – after getting called at home about the shootings – Craan, whom he knew, immediately pointed across the street at the 7-Eleven and asked “what happened over there?”
“I asked him if he was joking,” Pusey said. “This time he pointed to the Dunkin’ Donuts [a couple doors down from Little Haiti] and asked what happened down there” and said something about “an unrelated party” there.
“I informed him that he needs to be honest, this is no time to play games,” Pusey said. Finally, Pusey said, Craan began telling him about a dispute between one of his security guards and somebody outside – but said that he wasn’t responsible for what happens outside his doors, which Pusey told him was not true.
Henseler allowed there might have been some miscommunication, but said Craan was not trying to be a wise guy or mislead Pusey, but was instead simply dealing with the trauma of what had just happened outside his restaurant.
He said Craan has cooperated fully with the investigation since then – in addition to agreeing to keep his doors closed, Craan turned over video from his five cameras.
Henseler and Craan also disagreed with the citation for having unregistered gun-toting security guards on the premises. None of the three security guards were armed – the guns some online video showed them with were actually weapons that the wrestled away from the shooters.
“The actions of Little Haiti’s security team can only be described as nothing short of heroic” and likely prevented even more shootings, Henseler said, pointing in particular to one guy on a motorcycle outside the restaurant with a gun that he said guards managed to get away before he could shoot more people.
So that takes care of two of the cited violations – for failure to cooperate with the police and having unregistered armed security guards – Henseler said.
The other three citations, for the actual crimes, should also not be held against Little Haiti, since they are symptoms of citywide crime problems and not something Little Haiti could have foreseen. Craan said he has never had violence of this sort erupt at his restaurant and that, typically, his staff has no problems dealing with lines outside.
But E-18 Capt. John Boyle and licensing-board Chairwoman Kathleen Joyce said that wasn’t exactly true.
Boyle said there have been so many issues with boisterous Little Haiti customers at closing time that he now routinely has an officer sit right outside the place at closing time – if not that night. It’s gotten to be a drag on district resources, he said.
And Joyce reminded Craan and Henseler that on April 28, the board held a hearing on a series of citations at the restaurant, involving overcrowding and control of the line, including one incident involving a guy who was denied entry for already being drunk, got in somehow anyway and then, after he was escorted out, tried to punch a bouncer. The board issued the restaurant a warning for becoming “a focal point of police attention.”
Also testifying at the hearing was Fijul Haque, who owns the 7-Eleven franchise across the street, and his son, who works for him.
They said that ever since Little Haiti got its liquor license about a year ago, they have had to deal with a constant stream of problems: Little Haiti customers park in the store’s spaces, keeping its customers from getting in, demand access to a restroom, and use the side of the building when denied, and even shoplift. Haque said he now has a contract with a tow company to pull non-customers out of his spaces – but that only leads to angry Little Haiti patrons coming inside to yell at his workers and demand their cars back, he said.
“It’s hurting my business and my employees are not feeling secure here,” he said, adding that after the shootings, nobody wants to work the later hours. He said he is seeking certification of the problems from the city so he can ask 7-Eleven corporate to let him cut back his closing time from 2 a.m. to midnight.
Joyce said she was initially prepared to vote on what to do about the citations today, but agreed to put off a vote until next week – on a date not yet set – so that Henseler and Craan can submit additional video showing the view outside the restaurant before 12:16 a.m., when the crowd started arriving – and to provide a formal written security plan. Craan had initially agreed to provide a written plan last year; he said this morning he’d simply forgotten to do so.
