2 weeks Ago
The Birmingham Police Department says the Quest Club's recent history has been wrapped in crime tape far too often. “In less than three years, we have had a Birmingham Police Officer shot at the Quest nightclub, a homicide where two people were shot, a Birmingham Police Officer that had to fight with an armed patron,” Officer Truman Fitzgerald said in May. In fact, last week a different officer told Birmingham City Council there had been 109 911 calls to the 24-hour venue in the last year.
One of those was the shooting death of Terrance Brown on May 24. “Some apparent, you know, failure to provide adequate safety to the patrons. And, and our client was a patron at the time he was killed,” attorney Antonio Spurling said.
Spurling filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the club last week. It repeatedly blames Brown's death on the club's poor security. "This altercation, escalation and fatality of the plaintiff was preventable had the defendant had adequate security guards or police working," the lawsuit reads.
It goes on to argue the owner of the club failed to make the necessary safety upgrades, “despite knowledge of prior violent and shooting activities on the premises and in spite of actual prior notice of other similar incidents." Last Tuesday, Birmingham City Council voted to revoke all of the Quest Club's licenses. The next day, Spurling filed his complaint to try and help make Brown’s family financially whole.
“That means that it results in some type of, punitive damage award coming from this particular negligent act by the operators of the quest club,” Spurling said. While the club's attorneys have not answered our calls and emails about the lawsuit, they did successfully win a temporary restraining order against the city. That allows the historic club to remain open, until at least that case filed by the business makes its way through the courts.
The judge has scheduled an emergency hearing on the matter for Friday afternoon..
