‘The Dream’ nightclub faces alcohol license suspension after shooting
Dozens of patrons attempting to flee ‘The Dream’ nightclub after a shooting on December 1, 2024.
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- A Glass Street nightclub has found itself in hot water with the Chattanooga Beer Board.
This is after Chattanooga Police say a shooting took place inside The Dream nightclub on December 1, 2024 injuring one person.
No one has been arrested for that shooting.
The Dream on Glass Street is a popular nightclub in this portion of Chattanooga.
However, within the past three months, it has seen two different shooting incidents.
This morning, a hearing at the Chattanooga Beer Board concerned the very first incident, and the club’s response to that incident was at the center of debate.
Sgt. Jason Wood of the Chattanooga Police Department said, “I’d just like to point out that we’re very fortunate that we didn’t have an incident of folks getting trampled or a stampede or something like that.”
Surveillance footage captured the moment shots rang out inside of The Dream.
The footage shows dozens of patrons scrambling to get out of the club.
Some however seemingly ignored the shooting as Sgt. Wood pointed out, “Shortly after this you’ll see some folks come back and order drinks like business is normal.”
As officers tended to the wounded person, they say the staff was uncooperative as they tried to obtain information.
The lead security guard, Joseuphus Reed, defended this.
Reed said, “What I said is, there’s no need to speak to police if you don’t know exactly what’s going on. We have seen where people have just stated stuff that wasn’t true, like it was said that there was four guns in the club that night.So you had a rumor on Facebook that four different guys had four different guns in there, so when you go off of hearsay, you should never go off of hearsay, you should go off of facts.”
Reed also admitted there were security lapses that night.
“The metal detectors was broken by the cleaning people who came in and cleaned. They dropped the metal detector, and let us know about it. This was the only reason the metal detector was down,” he said.
Yasmin Springs, who founded and owned the club, said all the security working the night was fired and replaced.
He also added the metal detectors have been replaced and the required age of entry into the bar has been raised.
As a Beer Board arbitrator recommended they lose their alcohol license for five days, he argued this situation was to some extent, out of their control.
“I guess him and his, the guy had the same old lady or whatever the situation may be and had a situation we didn’t know nothing about. Unfortunately, the guy came in, wasn’t five minutes, didn’t buy a drink, didn’t do anything. Went straight to the guy with the girl, they get into an argument, and boom they get into a fight,” Springs said.
We asked for a comment after the hearing from The Dream representatives.
They declined to do so as they say they are awaiting another hearing with the Beer Board to determine just how long they’re going to lose their alcohol license.
