Cooper: Good riddance, Coyote Jack's

Staff Photo By C.B. Schmelter / A discarded bottle of tequila is seen across the street from Coyote Jack's days after the most recent fatal shooting at the site.
Staff Photo By C.B. Schmelter / A discarded bottle of tequila is seen across the street from Coyote Jack's days after the most recent fatal shooting at the site.

Three deaths.

Nine "shots fired" incidents with no victims found.

Ten shooting victims.

Twenty-three fight calls to police.

Thirty assault calls to police.

Sixty-one disorder calls to police.

Four hundred seventy overall calls to police.

Those are the proud statistics for the Coyote Jack's nightclub, located downtown in what is otherwise an improving sector of the central city. All since January 2015.

Three days after the latest fatal shooting at the scene Sunday, state and city officials said things have not been quite legal at the establishment for months. And, according to a city news release, the city plans to file a nuisance abatement complaint by the end of this week to shut it down.

It's about time. Many city residents who recall business lunches or family events at the site when it was Niko's Southside Grill or Bella Vita wonder why it took so long to shutter a business where trouble sleeps.

They wonder aloud about Coyote Jack's connection to Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke. One of the owners of the establishment is his uncle, Ronnie Berke, an attorney with the mayor's father, Marvin, at the firm Berke, Berke & Berke. Had it not been for that connection, they allege, it would have been closed before now.

However, the mayor says he previously recused himself from any city decision involving the nightclub but encouraged Chattanooga Police Chief David Roddy "to take any action necessary to ensure public safety." We trust that is being done now.

Unfortunately, documents obtained by the Times Free Press showed the business license for the corporation that operates Coyote Jack's was dissolved by the state in July. That would have nullified its beer permit - perhaps cutting down its more raucous patrons - well before last Sunday's shooting.

Bankable Holdings, which is listed as the owner of the nightclub, had its license dissolved by the state Division of Business Services after it fell behind more than 90 days on fines owed to the state's Office of Labor and Workforce. A news release from the city said the city had issued a letter to Bankable Holdings notifying it that its license was dissolved, and because of it, its beer permit was not valid.

The nuisance abatement complaint, the city news release said, would be filed "because of the ongoing safety issues resulting from activities at the establishment which have caused injuries to patrons and the public."

"As the violence of this past weekend illustrates," Roddy said, "it is time to take aggressive action to put Coyote Jack's on notice. The Chattanooga Police Department has been working closely with the city attorney to take any and all action we have at our disposal to put an end to the violence we've witnessed at this location."

We hope, in this instance, the resources of state law, the district attorney's office and the police department are put to full use to close down this business that has had such a tragic existence. Our resurgent Southside doesn't need a deadly mayhem magnet.

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