MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis police are investigating a shooting outside a strip club early Sunday morning that sent a woman to the hospital.
Investigators say she was shot outside V Live on South Mendenhall when a fight broke out in the parking lot just before 4 a.m.
Fortunately, she’s expected to be OK, police say.
But V Live has only been open for a little over a year, and already, the city’s newest strip club has some worried for their safety.
“You just see more crime happening in the area, a little bit more and more,” said Beverly Rodriguez, who manages a gas station nearby.
The shooting happened an hour before the club was set to close Sunday morning.
“You hear guns go off all the time, it’s like we’re used to it now. So, we hear a gunshot it’s like, ‘Oh.’ We don’t pay attention to it,” Rodriguez said. “But we should be paying attention to it.”
Investigators marked at least 15 shell casings as evidence and a shot-up car still sat in the parking lot hours later Sunday morning.
“That just gives me another concern to worry about now,” Rodriguez said. “You can’t go out and have a good time anymore because you always have to be watching over your back. Is this gonna happen, this scenario or this? It’s just too much.”
In the four years Rodriguez has been working at the gas station, she’s noticed the neighborhood going downhill.
“Cars being stolen, people leaving their cars on, stealing out the stores, shootings,” she said.
It’s because of that, store management decided to start shutting their doors earlier.
“I said, ‘No. It’s too crazy for us to be staying open this late. We need to start closing at a different time because it’s starting to get crazy,'” Rodriguez said.
But even that – and more than a dozen surveillance cameras – haven’t eased her mind.
“Sometimes it’s still sketchy at night because there’s a lot of people out here and you just never know,” Rodriguez said. “And sometimes people get robbed here at the car wash too, and you just have to be very, very careful what you do.”
Police say they don’t have any suspects in the case.
If you know anything, please contact Crime Stoppers at 901-528-CASH.
