COLUMBUS, Ohio — The City of Columbus is looking to take action against an after-hours club on the southeast side of Columbus following a homicide over the weekend.
The Columbus Division of Police said 39-year-old Dante Gamble was shot and killed in the parking lot of Luxxe Lounge at the corner of Beechwood Road and E. Livingston Avenue around 5:30 Sunday morning, as the club was closing.
City Attorney Zach Klein said the club did not have a liquor license, and the location has been on the city’s radar for years.
In 2017, the former city attorney filed a lawsuit against the owners of an after-hours club at the same location.
“The court granted a permanent injunction that prohibited the owners from operating and they eventually abandoned the site and more recently new owners have come into play they are operating without a liquor license,” Klein said.
After the violence over the weekend, he plans to take prompt action to shut down the location once again.
“The fact that they are operating a liquor establishment without a liquor license after hours and that place is the epicenter of violence as we have seen from the shooting that happened, and people were getting injured, patrons were being threatened... I think that raises a serious cause for concern for me, which is why I have told my team we really need to be aggressive in filing and doing everything we can to hold these people accountable,” Klein said.
The city has been cracking down on after-hours clubs.
In 2023, Klein’s office filed lawsuits to shut down three after-hours clubs on Cleveland Avenue, E. Dublin-Granville Road and Harmon Avenue.
They also worked with the property owners of two other locations to have operators of clubs evicted.
“These after-hour clubs continue to be a problem in our city where they are kind of genesis for a lot of violence and drug activity that puts them directly on our radar screen,” Klein said.
The owners of Luxxe Lounge did not return a request for comment.
The city is working with police as they investigate the homicide but could take action against the after hours club later this week.