Shooting at Elleven45 lounge: City takes legal action to close club

ATLANTA — The city of Atlanta is taking legal action to try to shut down a nightclub that was the scene of a deadly shooting on Mother’s Day two weeks ago.

In a complaint filed Friday in Fulton County Superior Court, the city seeks a temporary reconversion order against Elleven45 Lounge at 2110 Peachtree Rd. NW, its owners and the club’s owner, asking the courts to declare it a public nuisance and to prevent the sale of alcohol on the property “to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public.”

In its complaint, the city accuses Djibril Dafe and Ahmed Uwhubetine, the co-owners of Sovereign Entertainment, which operates the club, of creating an unsafe environment for the public while “allowing dangerous individuals to enter” the lounge then that they are armed.

“The degree of harm and high number of violent incidents” affecting the public have “resulted in the need for the City of Atlanta to act immediately,” the complaint states. If it fails to close the club, the complaint states, the City said the group would “continue to fail in its control and regulation of activities.”

11Alive reached out to both men for a response to the complaint and left messages, but received no response as of the publication of this story.

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In the complaint, the city says the Atlanta Police Department was called to respond to at least 12 calls for service at the property since 2020 for “fatal shootings, attempted shootings, stabbings, threats of injury, physical altercations, theft and disorderly conduct.” “

In one of those incidents, the complaint describes police responding to a call of shots fired in August 2020 in which they arrived to find a man holding an AR-15 rifle in his hand and a pistol in his hand. poached. Surveillance video showed the man weaving in and out of traffic while holding the rifle, the complaint details. The man told police he was “just protecting himself” after hearing gunshots nearby.

In an incident in February 2021, two women reported being stabbed by another woman. A few months later, in August, police responded to another stabbing. The complaint details other incidents, including a stolen cell phone, multiple fights — including some in which officers providing club security were shot — and multiple shootings.

The city cited the most recent incident on May 12, in which two people were killed and four others injured. Atlanta police said an argument inside the club escalated to the point where a lone gunman opened fire in a “targeted” shooting, killing Mari Creighton, 21, and Nakyris M .Ridley, 20 years old.

Family of Creighton, a rising senior and volleyball playerYeser at Albany State University, previously told 11Alive that the club “dropped the ball” in trying to keep the student and other clubgoers safe by allowing an armed person to go through security.

“Everybody dropped the ball that night. Nobody should have been in the club with a gun,” said Tiffany Eason, Creighton’s older sister.

More than disappointed, she said the family is seeking accountability. They announced plans to file a separate lawsuit to get the club shut down, calling Creighton’s death “preventable.”

“This senseless tragedy should never have happened,” read a statement from the family’s lawyer. “This act of negligence stole the life of an exceptional young woman.”

The city agreed in its complaint, saying the club “failed to provide adequate security and safeguards” to protect patrons and those in the surrounding area.