An Uptown Starbucks that was the site of a deadly shooting earlier this month has been reopened with new security features in place.
The coffee shop, where one person was killed and two more were injured after what police was a drug deal gone bad earlier this month, reopened with a security guard keeping watch over the premises.
Following the shooting, Alderman James Cappleman said that employees of the coffee shop failed to act on complaints of trouble in the past, saying that drug dealing had been going on at the store for over a week before shots rang out.
“We have had issues for years with illegal activity at this business, with very little response or help from Starbucks’ management to correct the problems.”
A Starbucks spokesman disagreed with that assessment, saying that the store was “just a location” in the narrative of the shooting that took place.
“Our store was not central to the crime that took place,” Spokesman Reggie Borges told NBC 5. “We are disappointed with the comments made by the alderman. Right now our focus is supporting our partners and our customers who survived this violence.”
As details continue to emerge in the case, residents around the Starbucks are calling for increased security in the wake of the shooting, requesting that police step up patrols in the area after a rash of violence in the neighborhood.
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Even Alderman Cappleman was impressed by the changes made, saying that the company stepped up security at the location.
“We’re all in this together, and if we want to address crime we all need to work together in many different ways,” he said at an Operation Wake Up rally Tuesday night.
