More than 180 shots were fired by gunmen who got into a dispute outside a midtown hookah lounge early Sunday morning, Tucson police said.
Officers spent Sunday surveying sites littered with shell casings on the south and north sides of East Speedway, just west of North Swan Road.
Four people were injured, two with life-threatening injuries.
No arrests have been made yet, and police asked that anyone with information, video or pictures to call 9112 or 88-CRIME.
The conflict began before 2:40 a.m. when a dispute broke out between two groups near Arizona Hookah Lounge, 4620 E. Speedway. Soon after, officers on an unrelated traffic stop nearby heard shots being fired.
Around the corner on North Swan, Michelle Barnes, Michelle Lynn and Nikkole Wilmot were among a group of people spending the night in the doorway of an office building.
“It was nonstop,” Michelle Barnes said. “There was like five or six full clips they went through.”
Dozens of evidence markers are scattered in a parking lot in the 4600 block of East Speedway showing the location of bullet casings following a gun battle early Sunday morning.
Barnes said she was awake when the shooting started.
“We heard gunfire extremely close,” she said. “At first it doesn’t concern you that much. You hear gunfire all the time.”
“When it kept going, that’s when I started freaking out,” she went on. “My friend dove over me to protect me.”
The gunfire went on for a couple of minutes, Michelle Lynn said.
“It sounded like a machine gun,” she said. “You could sense something going by you.”
The acquaintances believe shots struck the building they were sleeping in front of. Tucson police reported damage from bullets to several nearby buildings.
Evidence markers are placed near clothing, sneakers, a wallet and a car in the parking lot of on East Speedway and North Swan Road after a gunfight early Sunday. Four people were wounded.
It was not the first shooting stemming from disputes that started at a hookah lounge there. In 2018, Dominic Blount killed Avrum Diaz in an exchange of gunfire in what was then known as the Casablanca Hookah Lounge, next door at 4627 E. Speedway.
Other shootings have occurred since then.
Nikkole Wilmot, also part of the group sleeping outside on north Swan, said she slept behind the hookah lounge for two weeks a couple of years ago. The regular arguing and a shooting drove them to move.
The person listed as the statutory agent for the Arizona Hookah Lounge, Husam Baker, has been cited repeatedly for unruly gatherings, disorderly conduct-fighting, violating alcohol codes and red flag violations since 2016, Tucson Municipal Court records show.
But most of those cases have been dismissed by prosecutors or judges. The records show Baker held responsible in one 2016 case of disorderly conduct-fighting. An unruly gathering citation and a red-tag violation from 2018 also were upheld, the records say.
Tucson City Council Member Karin Uhlich, who represents the area, said “that location is obviously a real concern.”
It hasn’t always been clear, though, how or whether the lounge is responsible, she said.
“TPD has had a hard time directly holding the lounge or the proprietors accountable for what’s going on.”
Arizona Corporation Commission records show Arizona Hookah Lounge was established as Arizona Hookah Dance LLC in December 2018. It was formally renamed Arizona Hookah Lounge in January this year. The property is owned by the Dau and Tran Revocable Trust with an address in Escondido, Calif.
After speaking to the police chief, Uhlich said her understanding is that it was a pre-existing conflict that erupted into gunfire.
“Sounds like there may be two groups who have had an ongoing beef, if you will,” Uhlich said. “Sounds like those two groups — things just came to a head.”
The people injured are between 22 years old and 31 years old, based on birth years Uhlich said she was given by police.
