PROVIDENCE — The police said that they intend to ask the Board of Licenses to order the Club Balloons strip club closed on an emergency basis because it is a continuing threat to public safety.
Lt. Michael Correia, who oversees license enforcement for the police, said a threat of violence exists from a murder outside the club July 11, events inside that preceded the murder and less recent incidents in proximity to the club, which include a murder in 2008, an attempted shooting last year, and someone being threatened with a gun on July 1.
Nobody from club management notified the police about the fight between two groups of men that preceded the gunshot slaying of Paulo Jorge Barbosa, 29, of Pawtucket, complained Maj. Thomas F. Oates III, commander of the police Investigative Division. If they had, officers wondered aloud, might the murder have been averted.
There was a disturbance inside the club, at 257 Allens Ave., South Providence, that began at about 4:30 a.m. or 4:45 a.m. and involved thrown bottles and the threatened use of a firearm, according to Oates. One group left the club and apparently summoned reinforcements. When the other combatants emerged from the club some time later, shortly before 5:30 a.m., Barbosa was fatally shot, according to the police.
Club Balloons, whose listed licensee is Dennis D’Ambra, has licenses to present adult entertainment, do business on a holiday and between the hours of 1 a.m. and 4 a.m., and to dispense food — but no liquor license.
Aside from liquor-licensed establishments, which are heavily regulated by state and local law, the city generally does not regulate the hours that businesses may be open. The exception is from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m., and at least 24 businesses have licenses to be open during those hours.
The police said they would ask for the emergency shutdown at a regularly scheduled meeting of the license board Wednesday. If the license board does what it is asked, by law, the licensee must be given a hearing to contest the action within 72 hours.
Asked why the police did not approach the board on Monday or Tuesday, if there is a public-safety threat, Correia said Balloons is closed on those days.
Balloons promotes itself as an under-21 establishment, meaning that anyone 18 years of age or older is welcome. Correia said he does not know if other adult entertainment venues do the same thing.
A brief controversy erupted a year ago regarding whether one or more strip clubs in Providence might employ dancers younger than 18. At the urging of the license board, D’Ambra and other strip club proprietors signed a nonbinding pledge that they would refrain from hiring anyone younger than 18 as a dancer or for any other job.