Fights, Gunfire, And Frequent Police Calls At Kick-Off's Bar & Grill Fuel Markham Mayor's Call For Midnight Closing Time For All Bars There
MARKHAM, Ill. (CBS) -- One south suburban nightclub has been the site of gunfire and fights, and the subject of hundreds of emergency calls.
One video outside the nightclub, Kick-Off's Bar & Grill in Markham, showed chaos and a shooting erupting right in front of police. And as CBS 2's Jermont Terry reported Thursday night, the city said it has had enough.
A shooting played out in the parking lot of the bar recently, moments after Markham police were called there for a fight. Markham Mayor Roger Agpawa insists police come to Kick-Off's too much, and now he is trying to get the Markham City Council to push up closing time.
Kick-Off's Bar & Grill touts itself as a neighborhood club.
"We've been here 27 years," said Kick-Off's manager Patrick Gill. "Evidently, we're doing something right. We've been here 27 years."
Yet Gill is on the defensive, following a scuffle in the parking lot last month. Video shows two women fighting as a man tries to break them up.
There is no audio with the video, but during the tussle, one woman shoots the other – within feet of Markham police. An angle from inside the bar shows the crowd taking cover when the shot goes off.
"You're supposed to call police when you have an altercation, but that was the first shooting that someone's been shot," said Gill.
While the shot was fired outside, video obtained by CBS 2 shows the same young lady inside with the gun clearly in her waist before the shooting.
"The person who had the gun was a female – a young lady. It wasn't a male," Gill said. "Every male was wanded down. We have wands."
But another person – this one a guy – showed off his weapon inside the bar that same night.
Terry: "How do you respond when the mayor is saying weapons were inside, and you guys didn't do enough?"
Gill: "I would say that's wrong. We did the best we could, because we called the police."
Mayor Agpawa said that is the problem – police have to be called to respond to Kick-Off's too much. In 2020, records show officers responded 533 times, and last year, officers came with flashing lights 340 times.
"It's absolutely, insanely too much," Agpawa said.
This is the reason the mayor now wants all bars to shut down at midnight.
"It's too bad that other establishments get affected that seem to know how to behave at that time of the hour, but I can't discriminate," Agpawa said.
Markham Ald. Rondal Jones does not agree with the call for an earlier closing time across the board.
"I refuse to go to 12 o'clock," he said. "I believe that establishment, and that establishment only, should be shut down."
Ald. Jones will not support the mayor, arguing it will push too many businesses out.
"If it's a 12 o'clock license, that means they stop serving drinks at 11 o'clock. That means they start shutting down at 10 o'clock," Jones said. "You're creating prohibition in the City of Markham."
The manager said Kick-Off's has already agreed to close at 1 a.m. rather than 2 a.m., but anything earlier would make it impossible to run the business, he said.
CBS 2's Terry called every Markham alderman Thursday night, and there may be sufficient support to change the closing time to midnight for bars. We will see how it plays out this month at a Markham City Council meeting.