Third Avenue Shell to remain open for now as City of Birmingham lawsuit moves forward
Days after filing a lawsuit against a gas station in west Birmingham, the city and its police chief testified in court on Friday.
The city filed a lawsuit in hopes of holding some businesses on Third Avenue West accountable for the violence happening on their property. Seven people were shot early Sunday morning at a gas station in that area. More than 100 rounds were fired. One man lost his life, and six others were hurt because of the shooting.
The city went into the court hearing hoping to get the gas station temporarily closed, but after hearing from several witnesses from the business owner and the city, the judge decided not to take any action. The judge said the city failed to prove the Shell gas station is a public nuisance.
Witnesses who live in the area said every night — Thursday through Sunday — there’s cars stopping traffic on Third Avenue Many said they hear loud music and see guns, drugs and women twerking.
The attorney for the gas station owner argued that the other businesses in the area like the Burger King across the street have similar issues, but closing down the gas station won’t keep people from engaging in this activity.
“I believe Judge Pat Ballard was very accurate in the fact that if you shut down one place, that criminal element is just going to pop up in another place,” attorney for the business Brett Bloomston said. “We see that everywhere, and if we go through that process and follow the city’s logic and start shutting down businesses all over the city because folks congregate there, it’s a societal issue.”
One community leader doesn’t want to see the business close, but she wants to see a plan for how to disperse people or even remove them from the property when these activities happen.
“We just want the business to be more responsible as well as if there’s any way possible for them to eliminate the issues that happen on their properties,” Costella Adams-Terrell, Rising-West Princeton Neighborhood Association president, said, “that they step up to the plate because expect the police to do all the work. It’s not fair.”
Residents argue there needs to be more of a police presence while this activity is happening, but the department claims it’s short-staffed.
“They are supposed to serve and protect us, and we depend on that,” Central Park Neighborhood Association president Susan Palmer said. “We don’t have that serve and protect 100%.”
The legal teams are scheduled to be back in court on Wednesday. The judge is giving them time to work together to come up with a plan to make the area safer for everyone.