Residents say Washington Ave. bar brings dangerous crowd

HOUSTON - Neighbors who live next to a bar called "The House" on Washington Avenue are frightened and fed up.

They say the bar has attracted a dangerous crowd into an otherwise nice, young professional neighborhood with a lot of families and small children.

"To be sleeping and to be awoken by gunfire, it's very alarming. It's a really scary experience," said Soo, a woman who lives near the bar.

Residents said the bar attracts a violent crowd that spills out after closing time into the surrounding streets, where they terrorize the neighborhood. Residents shared surveillance video that show bar patrons fighting around 3 AM on the streets as well as someone discharging a gun.

"The fact that these people are just 100 yards away, fighting each other, dancing on cars, throwing beer bottles, urinating in the streets, shooting off guns -- do I really live this close to that?" said Robert Thompson, a resident in the area.

"A lot of the residents here -- we have small children, and this is something we have to deal with on a weekly basis. It's really frustrating because we don't really know what else to do," said Soo.

Houston police said since the beginning of 2016, they have had 35 listed calls for the bar, including calls for weapons discharge and fighting.

Some neighbors said they wish police would do more to stop the frequent gunfire.

The Texas alcoholic beverage commission or TABC, shows several violations for the house, including selling to an intoxicated person and allowing minors to have alcohol. For neighbors here, all they want is peace and safety and they're hoping both Houston police and TABC will step up.

"If, God forbid, my wife ever needed to run an errand -- you know, babies need things -- like 11 o'clock at night, and you might have to go to CVS, not only are there people always shooting in the streets, it stands to reason they're probably driving drunk," said Brian Douglas, who lives close to the bar.

"It just doesn't seem like something that fits the rest of this neighborhood. During the day it's [a] sleepy, quiet, chill neighborhood so it's kind of disturbing to see that Jekyll and Hyde, 2 AM it's completely different place," said Thompson.

Several calls and messages left with The House requesting a comment were not returned.