MEMPHIS, Tenn. — For almost two years, the Mynt Lounge on Hacks Cross Road was known as a nightclub with a troubled history, but Thursday morning during a court hearing it took only a matter of minutes for the Shelby County District Attorney’s office to make an announcement some neighboring business owners had been waiting to hear.
“Today we had court for the Mynt Lounge and they agreed to close permanently. So that club is now closed forever,” assistant District Attorney Paul Hagerman said.
The owners of the Mynt Lounge agreed to shut down permanently after a nuisance petition was filed against it by officials last week.
“A few days ago the Memphis Police Department, Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, the D.A.’s Office and City Attorney’s Office served a nuisance petition on the lounge in response to gang activity there, a couple of shootings, an unsolved homicide and other complaints neighboring business had about the Mynt Lounge,” Hagerman said.
The Mynt Lounge opened in early 2016. Since then police responded 57 times for reports of armed parties, assaults, burglaries, domestic assaults, noise complaints and various disturbances.
“We are supporters of business and we’re supporters of nightclubs, but any nightclub, any business owes its patrons, its neighbors a duty to keep them safe,” Hagerman said.
But the lack of safety at the Mynt Lounge was back in the spotlight in August when New Orleans Firefighter Gregory Howard was killed in a shooting there. Howard was in Memphis for a charity basketball game.
He left behind his wife, Dominique, and two young children.
“You took him away from us for something so senseless,” Howard said.
But now the nightclub with a troubled past is permanently out of business.
“The Mynt Lounge, the Mynt Club as it existed is now permanently closed. These owners or the Mynt Lounge can not operate a business at that location anymore,” Hagerman said.
