Safety concerns crop up following shooting
Oklahoma City restaurant owners and managers are reflecting on customer and employee safety following Thursday’s shooting at Louie’s Grill & Bar, a Hal Smith Restaurant.
The shooting prompted leadership at Hal Smith Restaurants to issue a statement regarding concern for customer safety, as well as several other local restaurateurs to consider best practices for the future.
“At every Hal Smith Restaurant, the safety of our guests and employees is our utmost concern,” the Hal Smith Restaurants statement said. “We are extremely thankful the situation didn’t escalate further, and that injuries were not more widespread. However, our hearts are with the wounded during this incident. We will continue to support our guests and families in any way we can during this difficult time, and we have a counseling team standing by for any employee or customer that may request those services.”
84 Hospitality Group CEO Rachel Cope trains her employees for weatherrelated natural disasters and robbery scenarios, but has never implemented an active shooter protocol for her restaurants including Goro Ramen, Empire Slice House, Easy E Slice Shop, Revolucion and Ponyboy.
“There are procedures for a robbery situation, but this
other stuff that’s happening, we’re just now starting to tackle it,” she said. “You never think about it until it hits close to home, and I’ve been thinking about it all morning.”
Cope implemented panic buttons in her restaurants at Oklahoma City’s Plaza District as an added safety measure for her employees, but questions what more can be done.
“It might need to be a situation where it’s a group effort among restaurants to find a solution,” she said.
Many restaurants don’t allow firearms on their property, Cope observed.
Signs will be posted outside alerting patrons of the rule and customers are asked not to bring firearms inside. But a sign does nothing to prevent someone from walking in anyway.
“Is this the Wild West?” Cope asked. “Are we going to have to start checking our guns in at the bar?”
Cattlemen’s Steakhouse employs an offduty Oklahoma City police officer during evening hours as a safety precaution, Cattlemen’s Director of Operations David Egan said. However, even this precaution can’t prevent everything.
“I don’t think you can prepare for anything like that,” Egan said. “When you open your business to the public you have
very limited control over who says what, who does what, who comes in — any business is prone to the same kind of thing. Short of putting an armed guard out front and a metal detector, there’s not much you can do.”
Three people were shot at Louie’s Grill & Bar and a fourth fell and suffered a broken arm before the suspected shooter was shot and killed by two men nearby with guns of their own. Egan said if a similar event occurred at Cattlemen’s he imagines a similar situation might unfold.
“The only thing we tell our cashiers is if someone comes in and points a gun, drop to the ground because we probably have more open carry people there than anywhere else,” he said.