The Chattanooga Beer & Wrecker Board issued two 14-day beer permit suspensions to Mystik Food Mart at 2413 Fourth Ave. for multiple violations, including failure to use the business’s landline to call in disturbances on the property and for operating a disorderly place.
The board had previously issued a letter of reprimand to the business during its last meeting for operating with an expired beer permit.
City code requires all places that sell beer to have a landline and that it be used to report any disturbance on the property. Cell phones and even panic alarms do not satisfy the code requirement, Assistant City Attorney Melinda Foster told the board.
Attorney John Wolfe represented the business and argued nearly all of the disturbances occurred in the parking lot of the business and many were seemingly random acts, including two incidents involving gunshots. One was a drive-by shooting that took place within a few yards of a woman pushing a baby in a stroller.
Jason Wood, a beer board officer, read the case notes from six different incidents, including a robbery, two assaults, two reports of shots fired and an arrest of an armed person who was reportedly selling drugs next to the business’s front door for nearly two hours. Benjamin Piazza, another officer, said the suspect was observed on surveillance cameras handing out small packets of something in exchange for money. He could also be seen in video of the incident adjusting a handgun in his pocket.