Garfield Heights residents want bar shut down after chaotic shooting: ‘Obvious danger’

GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio (WJW) – Residents in a once quiet neighborhood in Garfield Heights say the Showcase Bar and Grille on Turney Road has a notorious reputation for violence. It has shattered the peace and made them fear for their safety.

A sign in front of the bar is a reminder of its troubling history.

The sign reads "in loving memory of Ronnie Briggs Sr." and it's a tribute to the co-owner of the Showcase who was shot and killed in 2022 by a man denied entrance to the bar.

But nothing prepared neighbors of the Showcase for the violence that unfolded during the early morning hours of Nov. 3.

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On video from a nearby security camera, customers are heard screaming outside the bar, and then as many as 25 gunshots are fired.

Police say an argument led to the exchange of gunfire outside the bar and customers ran for cover in the surrounding neighborhood.

One of the bullets pierced the wall of a nearby home.

Residents say they were horrified by what they saw and heard.

"It's disturbing, it's frightening, you know, this is a residential area and in the middle of the night like that, it sounds like a war zone," said one resident who asked not to be identified.

Investigators say a woman was wounded in the exchange of gunfire and police later arrested one of the suspected gunmen.

For many Garfield Heights residents who have watched chaos unfold at the Showcase Bar over the past couple of years, the shootout was the final straw and they want the bar closed down as a public nuisance.

"I think it's a clear and obvious danger to the community and I think that it's been evidenced by repeated acts of violence that have occurred there," one of them said.

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The dispute over the bar is so intense that when an issue was placed on the ballot in 2022 that would allow the owners to sell liquor on Sundays, neighborhood residents organized a campaign and defeated the referendum.

FOX 8 spoke with Garfield Heights Mayor Matt Burke, asking if the city is considering the demand by some residents that the Showcase Bar be declared a nuisance and shut down.

"Everything is a process there, you know, and you have law enforcement officials that are looking at the situation. There's a lot involved with liquor control and you've got to go through the state to do a lot of that stuff. I don't want to see any bar that is a problem operate in this city," said Burke.

Homeowners living near the Showcase say they are afraid that if the bar remains open and there is more trouble, their families will be caught in the crossfire.

"We don't feel safe anymore. We should be able to feel safe at home and we don't right now," said one resident.

We reached out to the owners of the bar for comment but have not heard back.