By Jennifer Mooney Piedra and Jennifer Lebovich
The Miami Herald
WEST BROWARD, Fla. — The party scene at some West Broward nightclubs has been punctuated by violence in recent months, with fights and fatal shootings.
Police are routinely summoned to handle car break-ins, drugs, assaults and thefts that that spill over into adjacent neighborhoods.
“I am angry, really very angry, at the stupidity of these young people,” said Veronica O’Connor, whose son Neil Burrowes was shot to death outside Peppers Cafe in Sunrise last year. “They go out and have fun and sometimes they don’t come home. It’s a messed up situation.”
The combination of a large crowd and alcohol can be blamed for many of the incidents, said Sgt. John Jacob, a Pembroke Pines police spokesman.
“Any nightclub where people are consuming alcohol will have those problems,” he said.
In the suburbs, where clubs are isolated to farflung strip malls instead of a downtown district patrolled by police, the problems are harder to contain.
A large presence of officers on the weekends in Fort Lauderdale’s downtown bar district keeps disturbances to a minimum, said Fort Lauderdale police spokesman Sgt. Frank Sousa. The clubs and bars along Himmarshee Street hire about a dozen off-duty officers.
At the strip malls, bar owners sometimes hire off-duty officers, but also rely on 911 when there’s trouble. And there’s been plenty of it.
CALLS TO POLICE
Since January 2005, police have been called:
—More than 620 times to Cafe Iguana at 8358 Pines Blvd. in Pembroke Pines.
—47 times to Marabou Cafe at 9940 Pines Blvd. in Pembroke Pines.
—Nearly 100 times to Stingerz at 6029 Miramar Pkwy. in Miramar.
—79 times to Tropix Lounge at 2912 S. State Rd. 7 in Miramar.
—40 times to Peppers Cafe, now known as Breezes, at 3828 N. University Dr. in Sunrise.
During that period, four people were shot to death in the club parking lots, according to police records.
The manager at Cafe Iguana would not comment on the problems at the club. Attempts to reach management at the other night spots were unsuccessful.
Longtime nightclub manager David Schwitzke said the violence isn’t enough to keep people away.
“Ninety-nine percent of the people who go to clubs are there to enjoy themselves,” said Schwitzke, who has worked in Broward and Miami-Dade clubs for more than two decades, including a recent stint at Peppers. “But then you have a few people who come out and have a thug mentality. They’re the ones who cause problems.”
Three of the fatal shootings, including Burrowes’, occurred in the Peppers parking lot. The Caribbean restaurant and nightclub was also the last place that Stepha Henry, a recent college graduate from New York, was seen before she disappeared over Memorial Day weekend.
On Sept. 22, two Fort Lauderdale men were killed as they walked to their car in the parking lot of the club, which is next door to a child-care facility.
After a fight inside the club moved outside, at least one person began shooting. Jonas Joseph, 24, and Enold Antenor, 30, were struck by bullets. They were bystanders.
Joseph died immediately, Antenor later at a hospital.
No one has been arrested in that incident.
Burrowes was killed at age 32 on April 15, 2006. A motorcycle accident at age 21 had left him with a traumatic brain injury. He was unable to talk, walk, read or use the bathroom alone. He recovered as years passed, with help from family and rehabilitation, and had reclaimed a normal life.
Before the night he was killed, he’d been home for a week with the flu. His mother said he was finally feeling better and wanted to go out to hear Jamaican music. O’Connor said Peppers was his favorite place to go.
At 2:30 a.m. at the club, a fight broke out, according to a police report.
Officers escorted Burrowes to his blue Mitsubishi Endeavor. They watched him drive out of the parking lot, records show.
Less than 30 minutes later, he was found dead, his body slumped over in his SUV in a parking lot behind the club.
Since burying her son, O’Connor has had to watch her three grandsons -- ages 15, 14 and 3 -- grow up without a father. The youngest often asks when his father will be home.
“It makes my heart hurt,” she said.
On Oct. 6, 2006, Vilner Simon, 20, of North Miami, was shot in the head after a night out at Stingerz.
The shooting happened after an argument in the parking lot. Simon punched another man, who then reached under the front seat of his car, grabbed a gun and shot Simon in the face, police said.
The most recent nightclub shooting was last month.
At 4:30 a.m. Oct. 8 at Marabou Cafe, someone pulled a gun and started firing inside the packed club.
Several bullets struck a man, another pierced a woman in the arm. Panicked patrons fled into the parking lot. Both victims survived.
Christopher Royale, 34, a frequent clubgoer from Coral Springs, said problems often arise because of a lack of respect among patrons.
“If you bump into someone, they get offended and become belligerent,” he said. “Some people are more aggressive than others and start problems.”
During a night out at Peppers in June, Royale’s Mercedes was stolen. He said he’ll never go back to the club.
At Cafe Iguana, three off-duty police officers are hired to work security details on the club’s busiest nights, said Jacob, of the Pines police department.
“The best thing is to have an off-duty detail there to respond to those disturbances and quell them quickly,” he said. “Whenever an altercation comes up in the club, their security will tell our detail, and we’ll respond quickly.”
And while Marabou Cafe also hires a security detail on some nights, there were no off-duty police the night of the recent shooting, Jacob said. Pembroke Pines officials are considering whether to require more security at the night spot.
People who live near the club are asking for rapid action.
In a recent e-mail to Pembroke Pines Commissioner Angelo Castillo, one homeowner wrote that her community, Tanglewood Lakes Townhomes, has seen an increase in vandalism, car thefts and break-ins.
Carol Hearnz called Marabou Cafe a “crime-infested establishment” that should be closed permanently.
“Our residents are scared,” she wrote to Castillo. “Do you blame them?”
Copyright 2007 The Miami Herald