Nearby businesses react to weekend shooting at Paris nightclub

PARIS, KY. (WTVQ)- Business owners in Paris are concerned after a shooting at a popular downtown club sent three people to the hospital over the weekend.
Many owners of these stores here off Main Street saying downtown Paris is a quiet, tight-knit community of mom and pop shops so they were shocked to hear three people were shot inside one of the nearby businesses on Sunday.
Joe Akemon has owned this barber shop in downtown Paris for decades.
“I’m really proud of our downtown. I think it’s a great place for business. We’ve got quite a bit of traffic on the weekends usually,” said Akemon, owner of Akemon’s Barber Shop.
Akemon says Main Street is known for its small town charm so he was surprised when he heard two men and a woman were shot inside a club just a few blocks away.
“You don’t see those things happen in our little community. We’re a close knit community with a lot of real good people,” said akemon.
Paris police say the three people were shot inside club allure after a fight broke out around 2 a.m. on Sunday.
The club just opened back in April and while it’s been bringing a lot of people into downtown, Akemon says he’s not a fan of how late it stays open.
“I don’t like that it’s been open that late. That leads to a lot of bad things I think. I’m not in favor of that,” said Akemon.
While the shooting is alarming other business owners say they believe it was just a one time thing.
“It’s not a fear that it’s anything regular because it’s certainly not and here out in Paris we like to talk about our horses, history and hospitality and we never even worry about violence,” said Margaret Layton, co-owner of Loch Lea Antiques.
Akemon agrees, saying he hopes this incident blows over soon so everyone can get back to enjoying all that Paris has to offer.
“You have a few of these little things happen along but they’re very rare. Our community is just the best little community in the world,” said Akemon.
The three people injured in the shooting are expected to survive.
Paris police are still investigating and ask anyone with information to call their station.