Turlock nightlife strong after back-to-back deadly incidents. How safe do patrons feel?
Deadly violence earlier this month in downtown Turlock didn’t appear to cut much into the nightlife scene the following weekend. And from person to person asked, it wasn’t top of mind, if on their mind at all.
“I totally forgot about the shootings,” Stephanie Smith, 57, said as she and her husband Dennis, 61, were leaving Memo’s Cocina & Tequila Bar on Friday night, Jan. 20. Smith’s 25-year-old son’s girlfriend was the one who told her about the recent violence in the area.
The shootings, which took two lives, were early the mornings of Jan. 14 and 15. In the first incident, just after 2 a.m. Jan. 14, 21-year-old Romeo Portillo of Patterson was killed and a 20-year-old man was injured in a shooting that involved two groups of people and more than one firearm. The homicide was in the area of Market Street and South Broadway, just a few hundred feet from Memo’s.
Around the same time the next morning, 31-year-old Robert Morgan was shot to death following a confrontation inside the Grand Cru cocktail bar, 130 W. Main St., almost directly across the street from Memo’s.
Morgan was a security guard at the bar but was off duty when some of his co-workers got into an altercation with several patrons and he stepped in to help. The altercation moved outdoors, where Morgan was shot by someone who got out of a dark sedan near the rear of The Udder Place.
Both cases are still under investigation and no suspects have been arrested, according to the Turlock Police Department.
The Grand Cru voluntarily closed for two weeks to evaluate and improve safety within the establishment, The Bee reported. Turlock Police Chief Jason Hedden announced the city has plans to install license plate readers at intersections to help solve crime in the area and allow the agency to share information with the county sheriff’s office.
“I’ve noticed people are definitely scared. But I think they’re not coming in because of inflation or the economy more than anything,” said Alicia Miranda, manager of Memo’s. The Friday night The Bee visited, the restaurant and bar were full, and people were waiting for tables. Still, Miranda said, they’ve seen busier nights.
She and her staff were aware, of course, of the nearby violence, but since their establishment closes at 10 p.m., they weren’t in the area when the recent shootings occurred. “I don’t have any worries about the safety of the area,” Miranda said.
Stephanie Smith added to her earlier comment, “We probably shouldn’t be out here, but I think this is a reasonable hour. We won’t be going to any bars.”
She and husband Dennis said they were more concerned about their kids than themselves. Before, Stephanie said, the biggest concern for her “bar-hopping-age” children was drunk driving. Now, she said, she worries about them going out in the area at all.
But Dennis said, “We don’t need to be worried about the guns — it seemed like these cases were a ‘wrong place, wrong time’ kind of situation. And usually, you can walk into a bar and feel when the vibes are wrong, then you leave.”
A young couple at the Memo’s bar said they feel safe in downtown Turlock. Noemi Soria, 25, said she hadn’t heard about the shootings the weekend before.
“It’s so sad,” she said. “Some people just have a lot of anger built up inside. I feel bad for innocent people who are out to celebrate and lose their lives because some people have a lot of anger built up. It’s heartbreaking, and for what reason?”
Her date, Macario Aguilar, 22, said he’s not worried, either. After he was informed of the fatal the shootings in the area, he was asked how safe he felt, on a scale of 1 to 10. “Still a 10,” Aguilar said. “We parked close and stick together.”
The Udder Place security guards declined to be interviewed beyond saying they hadn’t had time to make a plan for weekends since the incident. Four security guards gathered in front of the establishment a little after 9 p.m. Nearly every seat at the bar was filled with young people.
This story was originally published January 27, 2023 at 8:17 AM.
