‘We need to heal.’ Kansas City, Kansas bar reopens after mass shooting
About two weeks after two men opened fire in the Tequila KC Bar, bar owner Erik Gomez had a priest bless the establishment before the parents of some of the victims laid wreaths in honor of their children.
The following Friday he reopened the small community bar near 10th Street and Central Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas.
The bar had been closed since the Oct. 6 mass shooting that killed Everardo Meza, 29, Alfredo Calderon Jr., 29, Francisco Garcia Anaya, 34, and Martin Rodriguez-Gonzalez, 58. Five others were injured.
The shooting, which occurred around 1:30 a.m., was believed to have been carried out by a man who had been kicked out of the bar earlier that night and an accomplice.
The suspected shooters — Hugo Villanueva-Morales, 29, and Javier Alatorre 23 — were each charged with four counts of first-degree murder. Alatorre was taken into custody the day after the shooting. Villanueva-Morales is still being sought by police.
Changes to the bar
Before reopening, Gomez said, he made multiple aesthetic changes to the bar. He replaced the carpet, repainted the walls and moved and changed the artwork.
“I didn’t want to see the same picture, I wanted to see something else,” Gomez said. “Now when people go, they’re concentrating on the walls, on the carpet. They’re not concentrating on what happened.”
He also increased security. He used to keep one security guard at the bar on Saturday and Sunday nights. Now, he said there are three on Fridays, two on Saturdays and one on Sunday.
The night of the shooting the bar’s security guard never showed up, he said.
Decision to reopen
About two weeks ago, Gomez said, members of the community started asking him to reopen the bar.
“One of the parents (of the victims) said, ‘You have to open, we come here, and we drink here and it’s a neighborhood bar,’” Gomez said.
Some disagreed with his choice, Gomez said but said he felt obligated to his employees who were going without paychecks while the bar was closed.
One of those employees, he said, is a mother of five who depends on the money she makes at the bar.
“That was one of my main (reasons) I wanted to reopen was so they would have their jobs back,” Gomez said.
In the past month, Gomez said, there’s been “sadness everywhere” while the community works to process and move past the shooting.
Two of the victims, he said, were close friends of his.
But when he reopened, he said, the regulars immediately started coming back. The crowd wasn’t as big as it used to be, he said, but he doesn’t expect that for months, if ever.
“I just want people to come and have fun because it’s a peaceful place to drink and eat,” Gomez said. “It’s just going to take time to get over what happened.”
Gomez didn’t publicize the reopening on Friday but he said he worked to get the word out Saturday and had about 40 to 50 people come out.
“We just have to heal,” Gomez said. “The customers are the ones that decide whether they want me to stay or go.”
This story was originally published November 1, 2019 at 1:31 PM.
