CINCINNATI — Three people were injured in two separate shootings outside Roselawn hookah bars over the weekend. Lifelong neighborhood resident and business owner Thaddaus Dawson Sr. said he wishes he were surprised, but he's not.
"You kind of expect it. Because (these hookah bars) seem to attract that type of crowd," Dawson said.
The 80-year-old founded Dawson's Heating and Cooling more than 40 years ago. His son now runs the company, which moved to its Reading Road location 10 years ago.
Dawson's building sits across the street from Miami Hookah and Grill, which on weekend nights stays open until at least 3 a.m. On Saturday, Cincinnati police said a man and a woman were shot outside the bar sometime before 4 a.m.
Dawson said large crowds stemming from the bar have become a nuisance in the past year. They park their cars and loiter in the parking lots of private businesses, including his own, he said.
He worries not only for the security of his livelihood, but that of his tenants, who live upstairs.
WATCH: Neighbors and businesses describe the unruly, "disrespectful" behavior by hookah bar crowds on weekends
"A lot of disturbance on Friday, Saturday, and sometimes on Sunday," Dawson said. "I've passed here at 5 a.m. and people are still out, milling around. These guys will pull up with their loud music, and they're very disrespectful... we have a tow truck that comes and tows people. We probably average three or four people a weekend having towed away. I've had 'No Parking' signs up. They've torn the 'No Parking' signs down. They always leave me with the beer bottles, the whiskey bottles and the trash that they don't want. We have to clean it up."
Dawson said some of the people who hang out in the early morning hours will even defecate in the back of his parking lot.
"Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. It happens probably every weekend," Dawson said.
Less than 24 hours after two people were shot outside Miami Hookah and Grill on Saturday, another man was taken to the hospital with serious injuries after someone shot him outside VYBEZ Hookah Bar & Grill, which is located a few blocks north of Miami Hookah and Grill, also on Reading Road.
As of Monday, those shootings were not noted on the city's publicly available crime reporting website, but we did look into the historical data in the area.
At least 24 people have been shot near Reading Road between Section Road and Summit Avenue since 2023. The hookah bars bookend the four-block area.
But Rashaan Anderson said city data doesn't fully portray the reality of recent crime. People can hear sirens day and night, he said.
His childhood friend owns the barbershop that occupies the storefront adjacent to Miami Hookah and Grill. Someone shot into the barbershop two weekends ago, shattering multiple windows. Anderson said it happened in the early morning hours and that he believes people who were at the hookah bar are to blame.
"Whatever happened to one of these clubs, and they got drunk and started shooting and having a good time, extended over to the next people's properties. And nobody's a suspect? So, I'm worried about that," he said.
Anderson lives a few streets down from Miami Hookah and Grill and works at a nearby bar. He said Roselawn is full of good, hardworking people, but that the late-night, unruly crowds are lowering the neighborhood's reputation.
We asked Anderson and Dawson what kind of solutions they'd like to see. Both men said a good first step would be to get the hookah bars to close earlier.
"(At my bar) we have a deadline and a responsibility to make sure that we don't serve too much to people. Other people don't. They just want to make money. Are they patting these people down when they come inside of these places? Why do you need a gun or a knife? What's the idea behind that?" Anderson said. "We need to talk as a community, and we need to figure out how do we resolve these? And if we can't resolve this, we need to get rid of them."
There are signs posted outside the Miami Hookah and Grill prohibiting guns inside the premises. We tried to speak with staff Monday shortly after 3 p.m., which is when Google said the business opened. The door was locked. When we called the listed number, no one answered.
Dawson said he's tried speaking with Miami Hookah and Grill's owner, but to no avail.
"This seems to be a problem that's happening all over the city. It just goes on every weekend, at 4, 5 o'clock in the morning," Dawson said. "Every weekend, I'm a little leery about what's going to happen. You just don't know."
