Reputation of Beach shopping center tested after shooting

VIRGINIA BEACH

Fifty years ago, the London Bridge Shopping Center was a destination.

For those living in neighborhoods along Great Neck Road, it was the place to buy groceries, have TVs repaired or grab a burger after work, longtime resident Harry Engel said.

Now, high-end shopping centers and residential developments have sprouted up around the strip mall at North Great Neck Road and Virginia Beach Boulevard. The shopping center across the street houses a delicatessen, day spa and dance studio. The one next door boasts a tanning salon, hairstylists and a chocolate factory.

London Bridge Shopping Center remains home to about a dozen small businesses, such as Engel's Hatteras Silkscreen, a custom T-shirt shop.

"It always has been a quiet, family-oriented sort of business shopping center," he said. "It's nothing fancy, but we couldn't afford to be across the street."

In addition to a tailor, a dry cleaner and a shoe repair shop, the strip mall houses two bars that have been there for years but have changed names and ownership over time, Engel said. For the most part they cater to the after-work crowd and some late-night drinkers, he said.

Several business owners said the bars and their patrons don't usually pose a problem, except for a few beer cans and bottles littering the lot and the occasional drunken person asleep on the sidewalk. But a shooting in the parking lot after a fight two weeks ago has some of them worried.

"In the 20 years that I've been here, there's never been a shooting," Engel said. "We're all very concerned," he later added.

Police said the Feb. 28 shooting occurred outside Fat Tuesday's Restaurant and Bar, but owner Julie Beach said it had nothing to do with her business. Fat Tuesday's had been closed for 20 minutes, and it happened closer to the 7-Eleven across the lot, she said. Those involved had not been at Fat Tuesday's, she said.

"We didn't even know it happened until 20 minutes later, when my bouncer walks outside and there's yellow tape all over the place," she said.

The shooting left one man severely injured. He was still in the hospital late last week. Police arrested 27-year-old Raymond Lopez Lane and charged him with malicious wounding, use of a firearm and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He's been released on bond and is scheduled to appear in court April 16. They're still looking for a second person.

That wasn't the first problem outside Fat Tuesday's, according to police reports. Early Feb. 6, a man and woman were kicked out of the bar and began fighting outside, said Officer Adam Bernstein, a police spokesman. They ended up breaking the store windows at two of the restaurant's neighbors, Millwood Cleaners and an office for state Del. Bob Purkey.

That was the second broken window Jae Kim, the owner of Millwood Cleaners, has had to replace since December, he said. He's not sure what caused the first window to break, but he arrived at the store one morning to find it cracked down the middle. The repairs have cost him $830, he said.

In the past year, police have received 65 calls for service at the shopping center. They've included calls for burglar alarms and intoxicated persons, according to police data. There were six assaults reported in that time frame. Three were at or outside Fat Tuesday's, Bernstein said after pulling the police reports. Judy's Pub & Eatery sits at the other end of the mall.

Overall, Fat Tuesday's doesn't seem to be a problem, said Officer Margie Hobbs, a police spokeswoman.

The restaurant was recently cited by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. It said Beach failed to report a drunken-driving conviction from July. Fat Tuesday's can appeal the decision. If it doesn't, it will face either a $1,000 fine or a 10-day suspension of alcohol sales, according to an ABC report.

Beach said she planned to pay the fine Friday. She purchased Fat Tuesday's 17 months ago and said she feels she's being unfairly targeted by the police and media.

The strip mall's owners and management company did not return phone calls requesting comment.

Engel said the owners, Daniel and Patricia Dehart, are good people who take care of the shopping center and try to keep rent low.

"I know the landlord is very upset about it," he said. "He runs a tight ship."

A woman who lives near the shopping center said she used to frequent Fat Tuesday's, but now the crowd has grown too rowdy.

"The nights we do go out, there is always an issue there," she wrote in an e-mail. "It is out of control, and a little too close for comfort," she later added.

The woman, who asked not to be identified, said she was outside Judy's Pub when the shooting occurred.

"It was pretty scary," she wrote.

The second person being sought in the shooting is a black male in his mid-20s, Hobbs said. He's between 6 feet and 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 230 to 250 pounds. She said he has a goatee and was wearing all black with a black knit cap the night of the shooting.

Police ask that anyone with information call Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.

Kathy Adams, (757) 222-5155, kathy.adams@pilotonline.com