Fed up with gang violence outside the Krazy Koyote, police are
compiling a list of recent incidents connected with the popular
Gilroy bar
– a step that could ultimately lead the city to suspend or pull
its license.
Gilroy – Fed up with gang violence outside the Krazy Koyote, police are compiling a list of recent incidents connected with the popular Gilroy bar – a step that could ultimately lead the city to suspend or pull its license.
The bloody list spans from November to last Sunday, when two men were stabbed and two were shot in the bar’s Church Street parking lot, the third gang-related stabbing outside Krazy Koyote in nine months. Seventeen Gilroy officers and investigators, four Sheriff’s deputies and two California Highway Patrolmen sped to the scene just after 2am Sunday to find the four victims bloodied, their attackers vanished.
Musician Micke Flotron, who performed at the bar that night under the names ‘2-Fast’ and ‘Profits of Doom,’ said he opened the bar’s front door to see a man in a red baseball cap emptying his gun into a parked car. Stunned, Flotron said he pulled the door shut, then pressed his face to the bar window, watching crowd members attack the gunman. Several people were videotaping the fight using their cell phones, he added.
“I’d never seen those guys before, never,” said Flotron, who often bartends at Krazy Koyote alongside his girlfriend, Marisela Rivas. “It’s disturbing, I’ll tell you that.”
Police have been tight-lipped about the attacks, refusing to identify the victims, the weapons or the gangs involved. Gilroy Police Sgt. Jim Gillio said police don’t know the motivation for the attacks, won’t specify what the gunman or gunmen said, and have no indication the fight was a turf issue. Police don’t know exactly where the attackers are from, said Sgt. Jim Gillio, but they aren’t from Gilroy. Sgt. Gillio added that one of the four male victims is a Gilroy gang member, but declined to give details on where the other three victims were from or whether they had gang ties. All four victims were recovering as of Monday afternoon, the last time Sgt. Gillio had heard about their status. Sgt. Gillio was unsure Wednesday whether the victims were still hospitalized.
“They’ve been semi-cooperative,” said Sgt. Gillio, when asked about the victims’ discussions with police. “We don’t think we’re getting the whole story.”
Krazy Koyote co-owners George and Marcos Headley have stressed their own cooperation with Gilroy police, and struggled to shake off the bar’s outlaw image. Responding to critics’ claims that hip-hop acts draw gang members to the bar, Marcos Headley has emphasized the bar’s wide array of music options, from country line dancing to punk. No major fights have broken out inside the bar, which is patrolled by 15 private security guards, Rivas said.
Last Sunday, Rivas phoned police at 2:03am, eyeing a group of men gathering outside, she said. Within 41 seconds, said Sgt. Gillio, 18 units were dispatched. By the time the first officer was nearing the bar, at 2:04 and 44 seconds, shots had been fired.
“There’s no way they can say to this place, ‘It’s your fault,’ ” Flotron added. “It was in no way provoked from here.”
“We can only do so much,” Rivas said.
But Sgt. Gillio said though the bar has made efforts to curb violence – hiring extra security, for instance – the bar still gets “a large gang attendance,” both outsiders and locals. Why is unclear.
Pastor Mark Wilson of Foothills Foursquare Church, which rents space to the bar, bound by a pre-existing lease, has claimed that the bar’s advertising on radio station KDON draws out-of-town troublemakers. The bar’s lease extends to October 2008, when Krazy Koyote could opt to rent up to three more years, said Jeffry Tone, the church’s attorney.
“It’s a difficult fit, of course, between an establishment like Krazy Koyote and the church,” said Tone, who said the church would have trouble evicting the bar, despite the series of stabbings. “But when you have a contract, you honor your contract.”
The Headleys also have complained that clashes in the parking lot or the street have been unfairly linked with Krazy Koyote. County Supervisor Don Gage, who was mayor when another Gilroy bar, Sandrino’s, met its demise, said that argument falls flat. Sandrino’s, a First Street restaurant turned nightspot, was shut down by the city in the early ’90s after neighbors complained that bar-goers littered their yards with empty bottles and trash. It didn’t help that an employee attacked a police officer with a microphone after the officer silenced the booming sound system to check the vitals of a passed-out patron, Gage said.
“It doesn’t matter [where it happened] – they’re responsible for their patrons. Sandrino’s didn’t even have this kind of violence,” Gage added, reflecting on the bars’ parallels.
Police resources are sapped by large fights, said Sheriff’s Lt. Dale Unger, who sent four deputies and a Sheriff’s sergeant to help Gilroy police mop up the violence. That night, nine deputies helped Gilroy police patrol the bar, checking patrons for weapons at the door to head off another clash. With that many officers and deputies dedicated to the bar, said Lt. Unger, few are left to patrol the city or handle other calls.
Once police compile their list of related incidents, Police Chief Gregg Giusiana will review it and recommend what penalties, if any, should be levied against the bar’s city license. Giusiana, in turn, will send his recommendations to City Administrator Jay Baksa, who can bring the issue to a City Council hearing. Mayor Al Pinheiro said he would recuse himself from any discussion of Krazy Koyote’s license because his company insures the bar. His opponent for the mayor’s seat, City Councilman Craig Gartman, said the bar should definitely be penalized.
“There’s been a history with violence at that location, and they’ve been talked to a number of times. They’ve been warned a number of times. And it’s not what I like to see in town,” he said. “Whether your customers are doing it inside or outside, the common denominator is Krazy Koyote.”
City Councilmen Roland Velasco, Peter Arellano, Russ Valiquette and Dion Bracco said they’d wait on Giusiana’s recommendation before commenting on whether the bar should face sanctions.
“From what I’ve heard, some of the street cops want something done,” said Valiquette. “They’re tired of going over there. I feel sorry for the owner – but unless he can get control of it, he won’t be very happy.”
Paul Correa could not be reached Wednesday by press time for comment.
Krazy Koyote could also face restrictions from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, which is still deciding penalties against the bar for “failure to take reasonable steps to correct objectionable conditions” and being “contrary to public welfare or morals” after a November stabbing in its parking lot. Spokesman John Carr said ABC was still investigating the most recent assaults.
As talk stirs of shutting down or suspending Krazy Koyote, Rivas and Flotron are frustrated and fearful.
“This is my livelihood,” said Rivas, who lamented that Krazy Koyote is one of the few remaining live music venues in Gilroy since the 2005 closure of the Gaslighter, an all-ages rock spot on Monterey Street. “Whenever there are problems, we call police. Whenever people cause trouble, we kick them out.”
“This is the safest place in town,” argued Flotron.
