Knockouts strip club, site of Dec. 19 shooting, has to bundle up this January

Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller wants to clothe up a Downtown strip club.

Starting Jan. 8, Knockouts, a longstanding club at 311 Central NW, will have to shut its doors.

But the closure isn't a total KO for the business; the strip club will be able to reopen after 30 days.

A routine inspection revealed a violation of sexually oriented business license provisions, Code Enforcement Director Alan Varela said, which resulted in the temporary license revocation. If Knockouts is found to have a second violation in the next year, its sexually oriented business license can be taken away for a year. There is an opportunity for appeal.

According to a letter sent from Code Enforcement to the club’s general manager and registered agent, the identification record for dancer Ariel couldn’t be located by the club operator. All dancers at such an establishment are required to have ID on file.

Calls to the club for comment were not returned.

The Dec. 22 inspection came days after 16-year-old Louis Mugishawimana, who, according to an Albuquerque Police Department spokesperson, entered the age 21-and-older club using a fake ID, was accused of fatally shooting a man inside the business.

Although the license revocation was prompted by a code violation, much of a Tuesday news conference on the closure focused on crime in the area.

“This action clearly states that I will not tolerate blatant disregard for safety in our city,” Keller said. “We will use every tool at our disposal to try and hold folks accountable.”

The strip club appeared to be open Tuesday afternoon. Minutes before the news conference started, as camera crews gathered outside the business, a man opened the door before quickly closing it.

Keller said he would prefer to permanently close the business — which he said has caused problems for decades — but said the 30-day period could give state licensing agencies enough time to find a way to legally close the property.

“I wish that I had the full power to do that by myself, but I’m going to need help from other regulatory agencies to do that,” Keller said. “It’s beyond the scope.”

If that’s unsuccessful, he continued, the city will pursue “every tool available” to decrease crime at the location.

APD Deputy Cmdr. José Sanchez said there have been frequent problems with intoxicated teens carrying firearms Downtown.

Sanchez said Knockouts' late hours — the business is open from 2 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. — entice people to congregate there after other bars close.

Keller said the crime at Knockouts overshadowed that of other Downtown bars. Almost 12 years ago to the day, a New Year’s Day brawl broke out in front of the business, which resulted in “one man shot, another stabbed several times, and another with a beer-bottle shaped wound on his forehead” according to a Jan. 4, 2012, Journal article.

More recently, APD charged an employee of the nightclub with unlawful carrying of a firearm in a state-licensed liquor establishment.

“There’s been nothing close, in my mind, over the years as a singular point of problematic illegal activity,” Keller said.