Club Atlantis owner says closing doors in wake of shooting death nearby

MOBILE, Alabama -- The owner of a downtown club that was near the scene of a weekend shooting death told the owner Mobile city council this morning that he is closing Club Atlantis never to reopen it.
Councilman William Carroll said he had been talking to owner Mark Stafford over the past few weeks about closing temporarily so the club could make some changes. However, the owner opted to close down the club given recent events.
Just after 3 a.m. Sunday, an 18-year-old man shot and killed another man at the intersection of Dauphin and Jackson streets, police said, after an altercation between the men inside Atlantis.
Cedric Cortez Burroughs of Mobile has been charged with murder in connection with the shooting death of 26-year-old Darryl Antonio Casher.
It wasn't clear why the two men had the altercation in the dance club.
By Monday, an online petition calling for shutting down the club had hundreds of signatures, and dozens more joined a Facebook group called "Mobilians for a Safer Downtown."

Cedric Cortez Burroughs

Several appeared to be organizing attendance at today's council meeting. The council is expected to vote on two proposals from Mayor Sam Jones in an effort to fight crime: a citywide curfew for teens younger than 17 and an ordinance banning sagging pants that expose underwear or skin.
Stafford left immediately after making his announcement and took no questions from the media or the City Council.
Carroll said stafford had previously agreed to close the club in November. Sunday morning after the latest shooting downtown, Carroll said, he called Stafford to ask him to shut it down immediately, and Stafford agreed.
"It's clear that he wanted what's best for downtown and for the other businesses downtown," Carroll said. "To me that's a very honorable thing to do."
Officials with the Downtown Mobile Alliance were pleased to hear about the closure.
"It's about time," said Sam Covert, chairman of the organization's board.
Elizabeth Sanders, the Alliance's chief executive, said that closing Atlantis is a step in the right direction, but the city needs to take a step back and evaluate how to deal with the systemic problem's downtown.
"This is a bigger problem than just one club," she said. "we failed the boys who are dead. We failed the boys that are now in jail. We failed the other businesses downtown."
There are more than a thousand businesses downtown, Sanders said, but a handful tarnish the image of the whole district.
State law lets any bar operating as a private club to set up its own rules regarding the age limit for patrons, which leads to abuses, she said.
Covert said it was "crazy" that the city was having to expend its resources policing problem establishments that rely on a reckless business model.