ROANOKE, Va. – A downtown shooting at Status Restaurant and Lounge on Williamson Road sent three people to the hospital with gunshot wounds.
“I definitely do not come downtown at night. Even on weekdays, yeah, I would feel scared. I don’t party on the weekends anymore,” Cayla Cassell, assistant manager at Benny Marconi’s, said.
Early Sunday morning at about 1:22 a.m., Roanoke Police said officers were called to Status Restaurant and Lounge on Williamson Road for reports of a shooting. When they arrived, they said they found a woman with a minor gunshot wound.
Shortly after, officers were told two men had shown up at a hospital with gunshot wounds connected to the incident. They also had non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said.
“At this point, I’ve become desensitized to it. [It] seems like every weekend, especially Saturday night, I come in the next day because I usually work mornings, day shifts and I hear something crazy happened at one of the clubs or someone died by being shot,” Cassell said.
Cassell said she’s had to find ways to feel safe coming into work as violence downtown has grown over the past couple of years.
“Like, I bought a Taser last year. I’ve been here for four years. I had someone come into the back and try to attack me and my manager, and that night, I got on Amazon, and I was like, little pink taser, it’s for me. Yeah, it may be small, but it makes me feel a little bit safer,” Cassell said.
The shooting was just another reason why she switched to work during the day instead of the night.
“Every time I came in to work a close, people would get so rowdy. They would already be drunk from the bars. They just want food. They’re upset. They start yelling at each other, yelling at us. You know, any female employees they would not feel safe,” Cassell said.
RPD told us there’s evidence showing the shooting started inside the bar, but also evidence of a shooting outside.
No suspects or arrests have been made at this time.