Shots fired in parking lot adjacent to Key City Brewery

Shots were fired in the parking lot adjacent to Key City Brewery around 7:20 p.m. Saturday.

Numerous reports of shots fired came in from the incident that happened in the parking lot adjacent to the Key City Brewery. Shortly thereafter several police vehicles were seen chasing a white Nissan Rogue down Halls Ferry.

That chase terminated in the parking lot of the Chevron on Halls Ferry near I-20. The Vicksburg Daily News filed a live report of that incident:

The driver of the Rogue was released at the scene. It is unknown at this point their involvement, if any, in the event at Key City.

Historically, Mayor/Police Commissioner George Flaggs has shut down locally owned businesses that have shootings on or near their property. National chains such as Waffle House, KFC and Whataburger have not been forced to shut down when shootings happened on their property.

Police work the shots fired call at Key City. Photo by David Day

Jacques has been closed after a shooting on their lot, including one incident when the shooting happened hours after Jacques had closed for the evening. According to the information provided, Jacques says the city did not respond to that call for over an hour and a half. Then, the city filed to have Jacques shut down several weeks later on a weekend that just happened to be when Jacque’s parking lot was needed for a fishing tournament.

Subsequently, a judge ruled the city did not have cause to close Jacques. Jacques has since filed a million-dollar lawsuit against Mayor Flaggs, Chief Penny Jones, and both aldermen. Affidavits in the filing include allegations of egregious acts against Jacques by the city and specifically Mayor Flaggs and Chief Jones. Those egregious acts include this statement made by Jacque’s owner Jay Parmegiani in his sworn affidavit:

“The recent gunfire incident that the City used as an excuse to shut us down is a perfect example. The police Chief testified at the hearing for preliminary injunction that the people involved were already known to her as troublemakers before the incident happened. She knew the people involved, knew they were troublemakers, knew they had been involved in gunfire incidents recently, and knew they might be at Jacques’ that weekend. She anticipated that they might cause trouble that weekend at Jacques’. But she didn’t do anything to get them off the streets or stop them. And then, after these known troublemakers used the far end of the parking lot as a place to fire off a bunch of shots in the middle of the night, the city used that incident – which they expected to happen – as an excuse to shut our business.” 

In 2017, the Event Place in downtown was closed for a shooting that happened 3 city blocks away. A closing that was later amended and made against the person running an event at the Watermark and not the owner of the Watermark, who had run against Flaggs for the position of Mayor.

Other businesses including LD’s and the Klondyke were forced to close after a shot was fired on their parking lots. LD’s was closed at one point for a shots fired call in an adjacent property.

The Vicksburg Police have yet to release a statement and did not take advantage of several opportunities to speak with the Vicksburg Daily News.