Maingate Nightclub owner, security guard shot in Allentown club’s parking lot
Allentown PA July 9 2019
More than two weeks ago, when three gunmen shot 10 patrons outside the Deja Vu nightclub in Allentown, the owner of another city nightclub worried and watched as the events unfolded, hoping he could use it as a way to prevent a possible continuation of violence in the nightclub industry.
Dominic J. Germano, owner of Maingate Nightclub, said the biggest threat in the industry has always been violence and the biggest challenge for nightclub owners and managers is crowd control.
“I take this threat very seriously and make security our No. 1 priority, but that threat of violence is always there and not exclusive to the nightclub industry,” Germano told The Morning Call on June 20. “No business or institution is exempt by the growing potential for violence and this, in my opinion, is fueled by a very prevalent culture of violence and guns in our society as a whole.”
Early Monday, after Germano closed the club for the night, he and a security guard were shot in the parking lot, according to a city official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the incident. The two shooting victims are expected to survive and are listed in stable condition.
Allentown police have released few details of what unfolded in the parking lot, only saying that the incident began with a fight inside the bar that spilled out into the parking lot, where a man opened fire.
Dozens of Facebook friends posted that they are praying for a speedy recovery for Germano, whose family has owned the nightclub for nearly four decades, along with the Fairgrounds Hotel and the Pines Dinner Theatre — all on the same property at 17th and Liberty streets. Many friends were stunned to learn that Germano was one of the people shot in the gunfire that erupted around 2:11 a.m., saying he gave so much to the community and was well liked by everyone who met him.
“My boy and lifelong friend from high school Dominic Germano was shot outside his club Maingate last night, I’m sure while trying to do the right thing,” Vinnie Tyrone of Allentown wrote. “Prayers for this good dude please.”
“This has to stop,” another person wrote. “We are better than this as a society.”
It was just a few weeks ago that Germano discussed the issues affecting club life. At the time, he didn’t want to talk about the shooting at the Deja Vu, but wanted to monitor the situation and see what he could learn and apply at the Maingate.
“I look at other club owners and operators just like I view myself as folks trying to make a living while providing a need to the market in an industry that can be very unpredictable,” he said.
Officers responded to the Maingate nightclub parking lot at 2:11 a.m. but found no victims there. Shortly thereafter, they were dispatched to Lehigh Valley Hospital on North 17th Street, where they found the two gunshot victims.
According to its Facebook page, Maingate held an event Sunday called “Domingo De Matinee.” It was billed as “the biggest outdoor Latin day/night party all summer long” and ran from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m., the event listing said.
Following the shooting at Deja Vu nightclub on June 20, city and state officials vowed to take action to shut down that nightclub, which they described as a nuisance.
In that case, police are still looking for multiple gunmen who they say opened fire with AR-15 rifles and a handgun on Deja Vu patrons.
On June 21, police arrested the alleged getaway driver, Angelo Luis Rivera, 20, of the 600 block of North Fourth Street in Allentown and charged him with criminal conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and two drug-related offenses. He remains in Lehigh County Jail without bail.
Surveillance footage from the club, area businesses and city cameras helped police track down Rivera and locate one of the AR-15 rifles used in the shooting, police said.
Assistant chief Gail Struss said it is “too early to know” whether there is any connection to the shooting outside Deja Vu, and there is no information yet about a suspect or the weapons used in Monday morning’s shooting.
The last serious incident at the Maingate was a stabbing in 2015. The victim in that case also was hospitalized with injuries that were not life threatening.
The club, near the Allentown Fairgrounds, Lehigh Valley Hospital and a LANTA bus stop, was closed Monday.
One Allentown resident, 42-year-old Carlos Navia, was shocked to hear of another shooting outside a nightclub, but this time in a quiet neighborhood he knows well.
He has lived on 12th Street for five years but comes to Lehigh Valley Hospital at least twice a week for checkups following his double hip replacement. He describes the neighborhood around the fairgrounds as diverse, with a significant elderly population, and one where people help one another.
“I’ve never seen this violence,” he said, heading to an appointment Monday.
He still feels safe, saying shootings happen in many places, but he worries where the trend is heading.
“What happened here, has never happened before,” he said, referring to two shootings outside nightclubs in three weeks.
Allentown police are asking anyone with information to contact the detective bureau at 610-437-7721.
Morning Call
