Tuscaloosa Council Revokes Business License For CRU Lounge After Fatal Shooting

TUSCALOOSA, AL — The Tuscaloosa City Council on Tuesday voted to revoke the business license of a bar following a fatal shooting in January that left a Tuscaloosa man dead.

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The Council voted 4-0 to revoke the license for Rackd Up LLC, which owns CRU Lounge on Alabama Highway 69 South. As Patch previously reported, a contract security guard and a female acquaintance were arrested and charged in connection with an ongoing homicide investigation after the shooting death of 28-year-old Rashid Little at the bar on Jan. 21.

Council President Kip Tyner was absent Tuesday night due to the untimely death of his brother early Tuesday morning, along with District 2's Raevan Howard and District 3's Norman Crow.

During a public hearing, City Attorney Scott Holmes asked Tuscaloosa Police Chief Brent Blankley and Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit Captain Marty Sellers about the scene the morning of the shooting and the circumstances involving the business.

Blankley explained that the owners of the restaurant, during a hearing in June 2023 for its alcohol license, that the business presented itself initially as a high-end restaurant that would never top its capacity due to its model of taking reservations.

He was also told that the owners had connections in law enforcement, namely in the field of corrections, and had de-escalation training.

Blankley then said the suspect, 35-year-old Arron Dewayne Hill, was a convicted felon prohibited from owning a firearm and was not licensed by the Alabama Security Regulatory Board.

An employee of a firm referred to as Grizzly Security at the time of the shooting, owners of the business insist it was Hill's first night working at CRU Lounge.

Even before the shooting, Blankley said he was left with no choice but to visit the business on two different occasions due to capacity issues, with the business receiving a second warning on New Year's Eve that owners were told would be its last.

Once on scene following the shooting on Jan. 21, though, Blankley said the employees and owners of CRU Lounge were not cooperative and refused to take responsibility for Hill's actions.

Instead, he said security camera video showed the business was overcrowded as multiple security guards beat Rashid Little — at points with CRU Lounge employees looking on and doing nothing.

Representatives from CRU Lounge said Little was a regular patron of the establishment.

Blankley also said he attempted to speak with Kevin Davis, one of the owners of CRU Lounge, but also said he was uncooperative and told the police chief he did not know Hill.

"He seemed more interested in playing on his phone than talking to me or answering my questions," he said.

Davis, a native of Carrollton, apologized to Little's family and also answered questions Tuesday night in front of the City Council and said CRU Lounge was short a cook that night, so he was helping in the kitchen at the time.

"I know we would never want something like this to happen, but it happened," Davis said. "We put a lot of hard work into this and we didn't mean for this to happen, I know they are saying the numbers but we've been open for six months and we've never had an incident."

As Patch previously reported, Captain Jack Kennedy, commander of the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit, told local media Sunday afternoon that officers with the Tuscaloosa Police Department responded at approximately 1 a.m. the morning of Jan. 21 to CRU Lounge.

Kennedy went on to say that the victim — identified as Rashid Little — was unarmed at the time of the shooting.

Once on scene, officers found one person had been shot. Officers with TPD and Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's deputies attempted life-saving measures, including CPR, but the victim did not survive.

Kennedy said 35-year-old security guard Arron Dewayne Hill was identified as the suspected shooter and was located shortly after the shooting, along with a Tuscaloosa County woman who'd been at the lounge at the time of the shooting.

CRU Lounge released a statement immediately following the shooting that directly blamed Hill for the incident, saying: "this should have not happened."

Hill, a resident of West Blocton, was charged with a single count of murder.

The Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit also charged Vance resident Thyais Walker, 47, with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Walker's deposition says she was charged after video evidence recovered by investigators allegedly showed her possessing the pistol that was used to kill Little.

Walker's previous felony offense came in 2012 when she was convicted of conspiracy to distribute narcotics in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The Altercation

Wearing bright red pants, Little is easily identifiable from eyewitness accounts amid the melee captured on the widely shared cell phone video, which shows him engaged in a physical altercation with the three security guards before he's taken to the ground in front of a bar room full of onlookers.

The details of the situation are complex and much has been said on social media regarding its nuances. Still, the physical altercation was captured on video and posted by multiple witnesses.

"Numerous witnesses were interviewed, and multiple sources of video were obtained," Kennedy said at the time of the shooting. "The shooter was found to be a contract security guard at the business, who had fled the scene. The suspect and the victim had been in an altercation at the lounge just before the shooting."

Kennedy went on to say that the victim — identified as Little — was unarmed at the time of the shooting.

In the video, three contract security guards, including Hill, can be easily identified by their black tactical bullet-proof vests.

While the three men are dressed and armed very much like police officers, the Tuscaloosa Police Department confirmed to Patch that none of the contract security guards were off-duty law enforcement. This was a notion Captain Marty Sellers of the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit reiterated Tuesday night.

During the tussle, though, a man identified by eyewitnesses as Little is locked up with one of the guards — Little's arms at least halfway under the security guard's armpits in a kind of grapple as they go to the ground with two other visibly armed security guards at Little's back.

As the two men fell, the security guard tangled with Little had his right hand on his pistol holster.

Once Little was on the ground with the security guard, the two other armed security guards began dropping punches at Little as some patrons attempted in vain to break up the fight. At one point, one of the security guards, who was dressed in clothes and equipment that could be easily mistaken for a police officer, began to stomp Little.

While the videos seen by Patch did not show the moment gunfire erupted, Little was shot in the minutes that followed.

He died at DCH Regional Medical Center a short time later.

As the legal counsel present for CRU Lounge said on Tuesday, it appears that Hill shot Little after Little attempted to spit on the security guard — a notion mentioned by eyewitnesses but yet to be confirmed publicly.

As Patch previously reported, an online petition has already gathered over 1,000 signatures in a grassroots effort calling for the killing of Little to be considered a hate crime because he was a gay man.

The Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit says the investigation is ongoing and additional charges are possible.

Per Aniah's Law, both suspects in the fatal shooting remain in the Tuscaloosa County Jail without bond.

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