Mark Twain once said there are three types of lies: Lies, damned lies and statistics. Yo’ Bar owner Ledrico Isaac would tend to agree.
“When I call the police because somebody’s here who’s not supposed to be here, it’s considered a disturbance at Yo’ Bar,” Isaac said. “… When a state trooper pulls you over on Bluecutt and you turn into our parking lot, when it’s all said and done and that officer has to tell their location, they’re going to say, ‘I’m at Yo’ Bar.’”
Isaac sat down with The Dispatch on Friday morning to talk about crime, and the perception of crime, at his business. He argued the way Columbus Police Department characterizes incidents at the bar, located at 3500 Bluecutt Road, gives a false perception of what happens there.
On Jan. 11 The Dispatch filed an open records request with the city of Columbus for incident reports arising at the physical address of the nightclub for 2022. The city did not comply timely, leading to a complaint being filed with the Mississippi Ethics Commission. The city subsequently provided the documents on Jan. 30.
The Dispatch requested those records in the aftermath of a Nov. 11 shooting, when at least 60 shots were fired in the Yo’ Bar parking lot and three people were wounded.
Incident reports provided to The Dispatch stretched from December 2021 to January 2023. They showed two assaults occurring on site; one off-site assault committed by people who said they had just left the bar; one person reporting being held against her will by an ex-boyfriend when leaving the club; two fights inside; one person getting threatening electronic messages after an altercation at the bar; two incidents with weapons, one on- and one off-site; and the shooting.
‘We learned the hard way, I guess’
Isaac pushed back on the apparent narrative created by the incident reports.
“Most of the incidents we have occur outside,” he said. “The majority were in the parking lot, and it’s hard to control anything like that. People can just pull up and do anything they want to.”
The violent incidents are mostly caused around closing time by outsiders who weren’t in the club in the first place, he said. Many of them have been banned as known troublemakers.
“If (somebody) is banned, they know they’re not supposed to be on the premises,” he said. “Then when I call the police to tell them they’re not supposed to be here, instead of protecting my business (the police) put it out there like it’s a disturbance, and I don’t think that’s fair.”
The bar first opened in 2018 on Highway 45 North but moved to its Bluecutt Road location – the former Boat Gallery – in November 2020. That move caused heartburn for neighboring business owners to the point many unsuccessfully challenged the city allowing it to open there in chancery court.
Isaac said, with the exception of the shooting in November 2022, he doesn’t believe the bar has posed any significant problem.
“It’s 52 weeks in a year,” he said. “We’ve been open for almost five years. That’s 260 weekends. It’s not like it’s a problem every time that we open. … It’s still just presented sometimes like Yo’ Bar is the problem, but it’s the people. It’s a problem throughout the city.”
For the first two years it was open, when Yo’ Bar was on 45, Isaac said the experience taught him a lot, especially about controlling crowds inside the bar.
“What’s crazy is that we had way more incidents on (Highway 45) than we had on Bluecutt,” he said. “… We learned everything from (Highway 45). We had to add more staff, including security. We learned the hard way, I guess.”
Owner cooperation helps lower incidents
Police Chief Joseph Daughtry, who started Jan. 1 in that role, seems to concur.
“Any time you have a nightclub, you’re going to have some issues,” Daughtry said. “Not many nightclubs go event-free because you’re serving alcohol and you’re going to have some elements that are just looking to create a problem. That’s true whether it’s Yo’ Bar or Applebee’s or Buffalo Wild Wings. We’ve responded to Buffalo Wild Wings and had to pretty much clear the room because people were fighting.”
In Yo’ Bar’s case, Daughtry said Isaac has cooperated with police.
“Whenever I’ve met with (Isaac), when I see him in public or when we do a walk-through of his business, he’s receptive,” Daughtry said.
“… We go out and check all the nightclubs in the city, and we walk through. … From what I’ve seen he has security, and my officers tell me he has increased security.”
Isaac’s precautions seem to be working, Daughtry said.
“I don’t want to jinx it, but a lot of the incidents out there have stopped since (the November shooting),” Daughtry said.
Isaac said he has a “tight” security setup every time the club is open: Two people at the door, four out on the floor in the club and four outside in the parking lot. Everyone who comes in is searched, and security has metal detector wands.
“If they leave and come back in, they have to go through security again,” Isaac said.
Security even checks inside women’s purses to make sure they’re not packing their boyfriend’s gun, Daughtry said.
“The times I’ve been there, (security) is at the door and they’re checking purses,” Daughtry said. “Back in the day guys knew they’d get patted down, so they gave their guns to the lady because most security is men. The female would have the gun, and then give it back once they got in.”
Even with security in the parking lot, it can be hard to control what happens once people are outside.
“You can’t control what patrons do in the parking lot,” Daughtry said. “You can have security out there, but it’s not going to stop someone from running to their car.”
‘Gunfights’ affect neighboring businesses
Not everyone agrees that things are getting better on Bluecutt, though.
One business owner, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said his building was struck by gunfire during the November shooting.
“I’m not trying to put him out of business,” he said. “I want to see him thrive and do great. I just don’t want to see it when we get bullet holes and our building and people are being shot at.”
He did say that there hadn’t been any violent incidents for a while.
“I haven’t noticed anything lately of a negative aspect,” he said. “… The concern is just the danger that it poses when it has these (large events). When you have a gunfight outside and bullets are flying, it affects all the businesses around.”
Shootings are not limited to the Yo’ Bar, Isaac said.
“I have everything in place that I’m supposed to have in place,” Isaac said. “But one thing you can’t stop is stupidity. That’s just part of it. (There is) shooting and violence all over the city. You don’t just have problems at Yo’ Bar.”
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 33 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
