BEAUMONT, Texas — The owner of The Park on Calder wants to set the record straight after a Beaumont man was fatally shot in the alley next to the new restaurant and bar.
The establishment had only been open a week when Leroy Smith, 30, died at the scene after he was shot early Saturday morning.
Deondre Moore, the owner of The Park on Calder told 12News that he's struggling to get Beaumont Police officers to beef up security.
Moore wants to make it clear that the shooting happened in the alley outside his restaurant, not at his restaurant. He says customers use the alley to walk to a parking lot on the other side of Calder.
"This was an isolated incident that was outside of The Park on Calder. This was not an incident that occurred inside The Park on Calder," said Moore. "It's extremely unfortunate. A life was taken to senseless violence. From what I was told by the police department this was simply because of a robbery gone wrong."
Moore says that Smith was a patron of The Park.
Now 21-year-old Augusta Simon, Jr. faces a murder charge and 39-year-old Horace Peterson is charged with evading arrest in a motor vehicle.
Beaumont Mayor Roy West was at The Park eating dinner hours before the shooting.
"The police officer heard shots fired and responded and immediately they put a call out on the radio and I think he must have seen them leaving the suspects, and put out a report on that and they were able to stop them," said West.
Moore told 12News that morning there were three Beaumont officers and four additional armed security officers at restaurant.
"They were out here in the parking lot. They were walking around. They were getting folks out of here," Moore said.
But no officers were in the alley around the corner from their front door according to Moore. Moving forward he plans to add more lighting and hire more officers.
"We hope that the Beaumont Police Department will allow us to utilize them and pay their officers to be here. One thing I do know for sure that I've been told in meetings by the Chief of Police, was that the chief makes the final decision on where their officers get to go. We requested for officers to come Sunday night and no one showed up," said Moore.
Moore said he has requested to have three BPD officers this week but has yet to hear anything back on if they will show up or not.
A Beaumont Police Department spokesperson told 12News the chief has the final say on where off-duty officers work.
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This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.