The Quest Club, an LGBTQ+ bar, is shutting down after the Birmingham City Council voted on Tuesday to withdraw its business licenses following a double homicide that occurred at the Quest in May.
The decision follows months of heated debate about whether or not the club should stay open, with The Quest saying they will be filing a temporary restraining order in order to keep the doors open, reported AL.com.
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Don Sparks, who has owned The Quest for over five years, wants the bar to stay open. He blames loose gun laws, not the club, for the shooting. “You can buy a gun and carry it, but you can’t buy a pack of cigarettes,” Sparks said.
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The shooting happened on May 24 of this year. The police were called to the bar due to reports of a shooting, and when they arrived on the scene they found two men outside The Quest, both suffering from fatal gunshot wounds.
According to reports, the men had engaged in an altercation, each drawing a firearm and shooting the other. Terrell Brown, Jr., 32, was pronounced dead at the scene, while Shane Gady, 32, was transported to a local hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries the following Sunday.
Birmingham Police Sgt. Kenneth Knight said the police have been called to The Quest 109 times in the past year and 44 times in the last six months.
Birmingham Police Officer Truman Fitzgerald said on the day of the shooting and before Gady died, “In less than three years, at this establishment, we have had a Birmingham police officer shot, a homicide inside the nightclub where two people were shot, an officer had to fight with an individual at the nightclub with a max officer emergency put out because that individual was armed and fast forward to this morning – we have another homicide where someone was killed inside the club,” AL.com reported.
Sparks and City Council member J.T. Moore got into a heated exchange over the future of The Quest during the meeting. “I believe that you all are very unserious about this situation,” Moore said, addressing Sparks. “Your establishment is a serious hazard. People take a risk every time they step inside it that they will possibly be killed.”
On Tuesday morning, the police checked security at the club and reported that was no one screening for guns at the door as the club had agreed to as a safety measure, according to Moore.
“The safety of patrons is not being taken seriously,” Knight said.
Sparks and his lawyer noted the importance that The Quest has had to the LGBTQ+ community, saying that it is open 24/7 and serves as a gathering space for queer people in Alabama.
“I know how important The Quest has been in the past,” said council member Valerie Abbott. “It’s not going to be important in the future if it becomes so dangerous that people don’t go.”
“You should be a good steward in making sure you protect that legacy,” Moore said. “It is a shame that a place like this is going to have to go away because you all were negligent in being able to create the safety that people need.”
