Seattle police Chief Shon Barnes on Thursday declared a Little Saigon hookah lounge, where a man was fatally shot earlier in the week, a chronic nuisance property, documenting assaults, a fatal overdose, and repeated violations of the city’s nightlife ordinance by remaining open past 2 a.m.
It’s the third time since taking the helm of the Seattle Police Department in January that Barnes has invoked the mechanism in city code aimed at stemming violence and drug or prostitution activity at problem properties with a high number of police responses.
The Evangadi Hookah Lounge at 419 Rainier Ave. S. in the Chinatown International District hasn’t reopened for business since a patron got into an argument with an employee outside the front door just before 8 a.m. Monday and fired into the lounge, killing 34-year-old Khalif Hussein. Police have not arrested the shooter, who fled before officers arrived.
Owner Firew Berjia said Friday he received Barnes’ letter by email and agreed to permanently close the business instead of going through the costly process of abating the property.
“I feel sorry for the person who lost his life. It should never have happened,” Berjia said in a phone interview. “Losing my business, I feel sorry about it.”
Though rarely used, the chronic nuisance property ordinance is a last resort meant to hold property and business owners accountable for the violence and street disorder associated with their premises, with nuisance activities including homicides, assaults, rapes, drug dealing and weapons violations.
To rise to the level of a chronic nuisance property, police must document at least three nuisance activities within 60 days or at least seven incidents in 12 months. The police chief then sends a demand letter, requiring a business or property to respond within seven days to discuss a course of action to address the nuisance behavior and, ultimately, enter into a corrective agreement with the city.
First added to the city code in 2009, the ordinance was updated in the summer, with the Seattle City Council adding liquor violations to the list of nuisance activities and allowing off-property incidents to be counted against a property if there is a nexus between the nuisance activity and property.
The updated legislation also increased daily penalties from the date of the chief’s declaration letter to the date the property is no longer considered a nuisance, from $500 to $750 per day. A civil penalty of $25,000 for failure to comply with the demands of the notice was also increased to $37,500 to offset the effects of inflation since the ordinance was first adopted 16 years ago. Unpaid costs of abatement can also become a lien against a property, which the city is then entitled to collect.
In April, the owner of the Capri Bar & Restaurant, also known as the Capri Hookah Lounge, shuttered his business after two men were fatally shot in the business’s courtyard at 9232 Rainier Ave. S. and it was declared a chronic nuisance property by Barnes.
The owner of the Oaktree Motel at 8900 Aurora Ave. N. also agreed to permanently close in July after Barnes declared it a chronic nuisance property for allowing prostitution and human trafficking to thrive along with drug dealing and violence.
Material from The Seattle Times archives is included in this story.
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