An altercation that
began over customers bumping into each other at a south Fort
Worth strip club early Tuesday turned deadly when a customer
opened fire from his
pickup
into a crowd, killing a 37-year-old man.
It was the third
fatal shooting at T&A Cabaret at 8701 South Freeway since
February, prompting the victim's family and a city councilwoman
to call for the bar to be closed down.
"This is just
ridiculous," Mayor Pro Tem Kathleen Hicks said. "This is near
all these new neighborhoods, new families coming in. When is
enough enough?"
The initial
confrontation occurred about 2 a.m. as the victim, Mark Berry,
was arriving with friends at the club as the suspect,
26-year-old Amos Williams, was leaving.
"There was a
little bumping at the door," Sgt. J.D. Thornton said. "That's
what started the exchange of words."
Williams walked
to his pickup, pulled out a gun and shot in the air and at the
ground, Thornton said.
"The bouncer had
come out and started herding everyone back in the bar," Thornton
said.
The suspect then
peeled out of the parking lot, driving onto the service road and
disappearing from sight.
"They thought he
was gone so everybody started coming back out," Thornton said.
Berry and his
friends, who had been asked by the bouncer to leave, were among
an estimated 15 to 20 people standing in the parking lot when
the suspect suddenly returned, stopping his pickup in front of
the club, Thornton said.
"He's facing
south so his driver side window is open toward the club and he
just starts shooting at the crowd," Thornton said.
Berry -- the only
person hit in the gunfire -- was struck several times. He was
taken to John Peter Smith Hospital and pronounced dead at 2:26
a.m.
The gunman fled
the scene in a Dodge pickup, later determined to be stolen in
Dallas. Officers in the area spotted a man fleeing and a pursuit
ensued. It ended in the 800 block of Alsue Street near Garden
Acres Drive and Oak Grove Road after the suspect reached a
dead-end and struck a metal cattle fence.
"That suspect
then put the stolen truck into reverse and backed into a Fort
Worth squad car," said Lt. Dean Sullivan, police spokesman.
The officer was
not injured and the suspect was taken into custody without
further incident, he said. In Williams' possession, officers
found a clear bag containing a white powdery substance believed
to be cocaine and, inside the pickup, 42 live rounds of
ammunition, Sullivan said.
Williams was
being held in Mansfield Jail on a parole violation out of
another state, as well as suspicion of murder, evading arrest,
auto theft and possession of a controlled substance.
Friends and
family said Berry was a bouncer who worked at Overtime Sports
Bar and Grill in Burleson. He was not working Monday night, and
he and his friends had stopped by the bar to have a couple of
drinks.
"He came up here
after he got done working out. They were watching fighting,"
manager Justin Fussell said. "We were all talking and cutting up
right before they left."
Marvin Berry, the
victim's uncle, said his nephew, the father of one son, was a
bodybuilder, was certified as a personal trainer and had a
passion for martial arts. "He was really small in high school in
Mansfield. A shrimpy guy," Marvin Berry said. "It's a typical
story. All of a sudden when he got to be like 17 or 18, he shot
up. I'm 6-foot-2 and he shot up to my height."
Marvin Berry said
when about age 2 or 3, Mark Berry was seriously burned in a
fire.
"He almost died.
My sister -- his mom -- stayed up at the hospital three months
in the burn unit as they nursed him back," Marvin Berry said.
"It was just a miracle that he survived that. We thought it was
ironic that he should live past that but not this stupid thing
at the bar."
Disturbing to the
family is that two other fatal shootings have taken place at the
bar since February.
On March 8, Dante
Empie, 26, shot and killed Ashleigh Jene Stone, 21, of Cleburne
at T&A Cabaret before shooting himself near the club's front
door, police reported.
On Feb. 17,
Anthony Williams, 38, of Fort Worth was fatally shot by police
at the cabaret after he dragged a woman into a restroom and held
a BB gun that looked like a real pistol to her head.
"I would say,
close that stupid place down," Marvin Berry said. "I remember
when they opened it. There used to be an old, respectable gas
station there."
An employee at
the bar refused to comment Tuesday.
Hicks said she
talked to the city's legal department and police after the
second shooting but was told the club didn't meet the criteria
for the city to seek a nuisance abatement against it.
"The prior two
incidents, albeit tragic, were coincidental or circumstantial
and had no specific regard to the licensed premise or the type
of business that is," Sullivan said.
Tuesday's
shooting sent Hicks back to the legal department. She said the
attorneys have agreed to review the matter.
"It's madness and
of great concern to me, and I'm sure the neighborhoods
surrounding that area," Hicks said. "Hopefully this will be the
impetus. It's sad this had to happen before we got there."
