Weinland Park hookah bar, site of fatal May triple shooting, shut down by city
The Columbus City Attorney's office has shuttered a hookah bar where three people were fatally shot in May and where four people were injured in a shooting on Sept. 27.
Columbus police boarded up MIA Hookah Café at 132 E. Fifth Ave. in the Weinland Park neighborhood on Friday after a temporary restraining order was granted against the business.
The city attorney's office said the hookah lounge had become a site of increased violence, including a shooting on Sept. 27 where four people were hurt and a May 18 shooting where three people were killed .
Around 2:45 a.m., Columbus police found five people shot at the MIA Hookah Café. Three of those victims, 27-year-old Malachi Pee, 26-year-old Garcia Dixon and 18-year-old Da'ondre Bullock, died as a result of their injuries. As of Friday afternoon, Columbus police have not publicly identified any suspects .
City Attorney Zach Klein's office had indicated shortly after the shooting that it intended to take action against the hookah lounge because of the violence taking place in and around the business.
In total, there were at least 19 calls to Columbus police from the hookah lounge between Oct. 2, 2023 and Friday.
Klein's office also said Friday it was not done with trying to curb violence in the area, saying the office intends to take action against neighboring business Del Baggio Pizzeria, located at 127 E. Fifth Ave.
Klein's office said there have been more than a dozen calls to the pizza shop since Oct. 2, 2023, including reports of shots fired in January and multiple assaults.
The hookah lounge and pizza shop are located about 100 feet from each other in neighboring storefronts.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Weinland Park hookah bar, site of fatal May triple shooting, shut down
