Norfolk City Council will decide fate of Legacy nightclub following Aug. 5 shooting

The fate of a Norfolk nightclub where four people were injured in a late-night shooting Aug. 5 will be decided by Norfolk City Council this week.

City Council will vote Tuesday on whether to revoke a conditional use permit for Legacy Restaurant and Lounge after an investigation found the club violated its conditions. At the same meeting, the council will also vote on a proposal to give the city government more flexibility in banning local clubs and restaurants from selling alcohol.

If both are approved, Legacy will be forced to close, at least temporarily, according to a city spokesperson.

The club could then reapply for a permit allowing it to remain open until midnight but without the ability to sell alcohol. It could also apply for another conditional use permit to open until 2 a.m. and serve alcohol, but only with approval from the City Council.

Marcus Calabrese, a representative for Legacy Lounge, responded to the upcoming vote with an emailed statement on behalf of the club’s owners on Saturday. In it, the owners requested city officials meet with them before making a decision.

“As the owners of Legacy Lounge, we selected Downtown Norfolk willingly and collaboratively,” Calabrese said. “It is for that reason we have extended a standing invitation for a tour and meeting with our ownership team to the elected and civic stakeholders who share our interest in a successful, vibrant, and safe Downtown prior to any decision that would be made without dialogue.”

An investigation of Legacy found the club violated a condition of its permit on the night of the Aug. 5 shooting.

Norfolk spokesperson Chris Jones said in an email to The Virginian-Pilot on Monday that nightclubs are required to provide uniformed security officers tasked with controlling and containing patrons, “and peacefully and effectively resolving dangerous situations to prevent injuries.”

A police investigation found “no uniformed security were within the business” when an altercation occurred in which a patron, Tyshawn Gray, was restrained and dragged by his neck and clothing inside the club, Jones said.

The police investigation found that, following that altercation, “Legacy staff moved patrons out of the nightclub and into the neighborhood’s streets, where Mr. Gray then fired several rounds into the crowd, striking four victims,” Jones said.

“As a result of these actions, the City proposes Legacy’s CUP be revoked,” Jones said.

The city declined to turn over numerous records to The Pilot in connection with a Freedom of Information Act request related to the shooting. The request sought records of all violations at permit-carrying Norfolk restaurants from Aug. 5 to Aug. 11, the week of the shooting at Legacy.

Citing an ongoing criminal investigation, the city withheld 29 emails, three pages of records and a video.

City Council granted Legacy a conditional use permit Aug. 24, 2021, to operate as a nightclub and stay open until 2 a.m.

The Legacy shooting is the most recent in a trio of high-profile, violent incidents that have occurred downtown. An April shooting at MacArthur Center mall left one dead and two injured. And a shooting in March outside Chicho’s Backstage on Granby Street left one person injured and three dead, including a Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press reporter.

City officials have vowed a more forceful approach to reining in rising crime in the downtown area since the Legacy shooting.

The city administration announced last week that it closed Culture Lounge and Restaurant, another downtown restaurant, for alcohol-related violations and for hosting live entertainment without a permit.

Culture’s closure comes nine months after the city revoked its conditional use permit that allowed it to operate as a nightclub after multiple violent incidents were reported there in 2021.

In numerous social media posts this week, the owners of Culture denied the restaurant violated the city’s restaurant rules, and have said they are being “harassed” and “bullied” by the city.

Daniel Berti, daniel.berti@virginiamedia.com