Hookah lounges banned after fatal shooting

MIDDLETOWN — Middletown zoning officials unanimously voted last week to ban future nightclubs and hookah lounges from operating in the city following the early morning shooting death of Jonathan Semidey of New Britain, 20, at the Hidden Hookah Lounge May 21.

The fatal shooting occurred at 695 S. Main St., followed a disturbance in the parking lot, Police Chief Erik Costa has said. His department is continuing to investigate the incident.

The action, which involved several updates to the city’s zoning code regarding recreational facilities, was initiated prior to Semidey’s death.

The building owner, listed in the assessor’s database as Sunshine Equity LLC of Charlestown, Massachusetts, voluntarily closed the lounge for two weeks, according to Health Department Director Kevin Elak. His records show Song Chen listed as the principal. However, Hearst Connecticut Media has been unable to contact him for comment.

Costa last week recommended revoking the special zoning exception given to the location some two years ago. He also called the Hidden Hookah Lounge a “nexus for many shootings, disturbances and loud noise complaints.”

Land Use Director Marek Kozikowski said during Wednesday’s Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce meeting that a public hearing is scheduled for June 21 to determine whether the lounge’s special exception to operate in the mixed-use zone should be rescinded.

Costa and Elak have called conditions a “public health crisis.”

Chad Spooner, who owns two brick buildings next door to the hookah bar on South Main and Highland Avenue, spoke for the permit revocation during the Planning and Zoning Commission’s public hearing May 24. The bedroom of one of the apartments he rents out is located 60 feet from the site, Spooner said.

He talked about the detritus left outside the lounge that he must pick up after it closes.

“The last two years have been very challenging,” Spooner said. “Every weekend, I am there picking up garbage. It’s unbelievable. It’s not only food waste, booze bottles, chewed gum … hundreds — hundreds — of spitout, chewed gum balls on the parking lot that just get driven over, insane amounts of cut

through traffic at all hours of the night, condoms, and piles of puke that I shovel up and have to take care of.”

Jeff Mansolf, owner of Clockwork Tattoo, located above the lounge, said conditions have affected his livelihood, such as “stabbings, shootings, trash, other problems; underwear left in the parking lot and whatnot. I’m glad to see this coming to an end.”

At other times, Mansolf added, he has fielded calls at 2 and 2:30 a.m. from people asking what is going on after seeing 20 police cruisers outside, he added.

The chief explained at the hearing that these incidents, involving young people, are made in the moment “under high emotions … that cause an outcome

where violence has happened.”

Costa pointed to such businesses having experienced “serious violence” across the state and nationally, including, he said, one in September 2022, during which a Bridgeport man killed an Ansonia man in an Ansonia hookah lounge.

Aho micide occurred in Fayetteville, North Carolina, April 3 at a hookah lounge there, Costa said. Another took place in Miami on April 21, he added, outside another such lounge. Also, he said that two dozen rounds were fired outside a hookah lounge earlier this month in Groton.

On April 23, he told commissioners, local police engaged in a car chase all the way to Hartford following an incident, again involving gunfire, after which two men were arrested.

In December of last

year, when the Hidden Lounge was called the Midnight Hookah Lounge under former ownership, there were shots fired into the air multiple times, Costa added.

Also, in early November 2021, a 30-year-old man was shot multiple times outside the lounge, police said at the time. He suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Since January 2022, the chief said, there have been 142 calls for service and 34 “serious violent crimes and disturbances that are reported in criminal investigations.”

Because of that, the chief said, on four days of the week when the lounge is open, he assigns between five and six officers to patrol the area at 4 a.m. “We have a lot of officers working, but not enough to cover just one business.”

Middletown is not a violent city, Costa said. “It’s

spots like this that, decisions that you make, can change the future outcomes of good communities and neighborhoods,” he told board members.

Downtown Business District Coordinator Sandra Russo-Driska told commissioners that members unanimously voted to support the permit revocation last week.

“We are all about promoting a positive climate and growth. We want businesses to succeed, but they have to operate within their permitted uses,” she said.

“When they go outside of the permitted uses, or there is something there that doesn’t seem exactly right, that is when we all have to come together and say we need to take a look at this.”

Members approved the motion unanimously.

For information on the June 21 public hearing, visit middletownct.gov.

Cassandra Day/Hearst Connecticut Media A fatal shooting occurred during the early hours of May 21 at the Hidden Hooka Lounge in Middletown, during which a 20-year-old New Britain man was killed. Planning and Zoning Commission members recently voted to prevent such lounges and nightclubs from opening in the city.