DATE: Tuesday, April 29, 1997               TAG: 9704290255

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   60 lines

PORTSMOUTH TO ASK COURT TO CLOSE CLUB IMMEDIATELY

City officials today will ask a Circuit Court judge to immediately and permanently close The Showcase nightclub, after a weekend shooting spree left three people wounded.

City Manager Ronald Massie authorized City Attorney G. Timothy Oksman to make the request after receiving police reports of the melee at the club early Sunday morning.

Massie also received a request from City Councilman Cameron C. Pitts for assistance from state police and the National Guard if similar problems continued at the club.

``If I had the legal authority, I'd go out there and put a padlock on it now,'' Pitts said Monday. He said that although he didn't know the specifics of Sunday's incident, he worries that other such incidents at the club could draw too many police resources from the rest of the city.

``I think we need to be prepared to respond to protect'' the citizens, he said.

Oksman on Monday asked for the hearing before Judge Norman Olitsky, scheduled for 3 p.m. Oksman declined to comment.

If the judge approves the request, the action will expedite the closing of the club. Olitsky earlier had ordered that The Showcase cease operating by May 24. The judge cited several violations, including admitting patrons under age 21, operating after 1 a.m., and violating noise rules.

Pitts said he received nine telephone calls from citizens at his home Sunday after the shootings. He said additional police were necessary because the club was a threat to public safety, endangering residents of the nearby Collinswood neighborhood and nearby businesses.

``I don't think you can put a price tag on people's lives,'' Pitts said. ``I am sure that somebody is going to be killed if this continues.''

According to a report from the city manager's office, a fight began outside the club about 1:49 a.m. Sunday, and nightclub security guards responded with pepper gas or mace. One woman stopped breathing and was revived by emergency rescue workers.

Other fights broke out among patrons in the parking lot, and gunfire erupted. One woman was shot in the back and hospitalized. She was in stable condition Sunday. A police officer was shot at by a man who was subdued and arrested.

Several patrons of the club went to a nearby Exxon convenience mart, where another dispute began and a gunbattle erupted, the report said. Two people were shot outside the store. One was wounded in the arm, the other in the leg. Both victims were treated at a hospital and released.

Bob Hucks, owner of the nightclub, said in an interview Monday that he never had any trouble with patrons inside the club, and adhered to all restrictions established by the courts. Hucks said that he could not be held responsible for the actions of a few troublemakers who leave the club and commit crimes.

``One or two people cause a problem and they blame the whole attendance,'' Hucks said. ``When someone leaves the club and goes somewhere else and commits a felony, how can they blame me?

``The city never supported me wholeheartedly,'' Hucks said. ``They don't concentrate on the good things I've done; they only concentrate on the bad things.'' KEYWORDS: NIGHTCLUBS SHOOTING INJURIE

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