Topeka residents known for causing trouble. Who would have thought?

Lawrence bar owner comments on recent shooting in Lawrence.

Update: Here's the story below.

Owner of bar blames Topeka

Lawrence businessman says capital city residents trouble


By Ric Anderson
The Capital-Journal
Stay away from Abe & Jake's.

That was Topeka Mayor Bill Bunten's advice to city residents after the owner of Abe & Jake's Landing, a bar in downtown Lawrence, said he often puts a blanket ban on Topeka residents from entering the establishment because Topekans have been largely responsible for violence in Lawrence bars.

"It seems a little like mass condemnation, doesn't it?" Bunten said Tuesday. "Maybe what people from Topeka need to do is not go to that bar if they're not wanted."

Good idea, said Mike Elwell, Abe & Jake's owner. He said that although perhaps only 10 percent of Topekans who travel to Lawrence bars are troublemakers, he had no problem with all city residents staying out of his bar.

"I think it'd be great," he said. "I couldn't ask for anything better. We've got a nice crowd. We don't need a bunch of people who at the drop of a hat are running to their car to get a weapon over some perceived slight."

Elwell is the former owner of the Granada, 1020 Massachusetts, where Topeka resident Robert Earl Williams, 46, was shot and killed early Sunday after watching a hip-hop performance that featured his nephew. A 22-year-old Kansas City, Kan., man, identified by police Tuesday as Pierre Christopher Burnette, also was wounded by gunfire that erupted outside the bar shortly after 2 a.m.

Police have made no arrests and haven't identified a perpetrator in the shootings.

Elwell said Abe & Jake's keeps out Topekans and Kansas City residents by having "college nights" in which patrons must show one form of identification verifying their proof of age and another ID from The University of Kansas, Haskell Indian Nations University or Baker University. Out-of-towners without a local university ID are turned away.

"It's unfortunate," he said of the policy. "We don't do it all the time, but if you have an incident like this (Granada shooting), you kick it into high gear."

Elwell estimated that during the 10 years he owned the Granada, Topekans were responsible for 65 percent of serious incidents in Lawrence bars. The remainder were caused by residents of Leavenworth and the Kansas City area, he said.

"You have a crime rate in Topeka that I can't even comprehend," he said. "It's like people become accustomed to dealing with their problems over there with violence, then they come to Lawrence and bring the same mentality with them."

Echoing Bunten, Topeka City Council members Bill Haynes and Lana Kennedy said Elwell was out of line.

"I guess that's a message to Topekans that they shouldn't shop in Lawrence, isn't it?" Haynes said. "Apparently, he's catering to the university students, and that's his prerogative. But I emphasize again that if he's speaking for the city's retailers -- and I'm not saying he is -- then that's a pretty clear message to Topekans that they should spend their money here in town instead of going to Lawrence."

Kennedy said she had been to Abe & Jake's but wouldn't return.

"You know what that sounds like? Discrimination," she said of the policy.

Maggie Del Campo, co-owner of the Slow Ride Roadhouse Bar & Grill, 1350 N. 3rd in north Lawrence, said Topeka residents patronized her establishment on a regular basis without causing problems. But Del Campo said her brother routinely experienced problems with Topeka residents several years ago at a club he owns, and she agreed with Elwell that Topekans seemed to be the root of much of the violence in the Lawrence bar scene.

Sean Gerrity, proprietor of Henry T's Bar & Grill, 3520 W. 6th, said Topeka residents routinely visit the establishment without incident. The bar is located about two miles west of downtown Lawrence.

"We do get people from Topeka, for sure, but we've never had any kind of bad element," he said.

Lawrence police said officers have recovered handguns from people in at least six different incidents this year in the central business district. Williams' death was the first homicide this year in Lawrence. The last homicide in the city occurred on June 18, 2005, when a 3-year-old girl died of head injuries.