Local residents are becoming more cautious following a string of crimes and altercations during the last few months in Mission Hills, Hillcrest and North Park.

A recent incident occurred outside of the Arts & Entertainment Center, nearby the popular gay nightclub Bacchus House in North Park on the evening of Aug. 11.

Lieutenant Margaret Schaufelberger said the Arts & Entertainment Center was rented out to a private party when two carloads of teens showed up uninvited, which led to an altercation outside the center.

“… Some of the people remained in the area for a while and then eventually dispersed,” Schaufelberger said. “There was one person who filed a crime case report, but then later declined any sort of prosecution.”

Sister Kali, a member of the San Diego Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, said a teenager hit her in the face while she was standing on the smoking patio at Bacchus House.

“I started noticing that there were these kids running around North Park, and it looked out of place,” she said. “… As the night went on, more and more of the gang kids began gathering, and it was a very bizarre image for North Park.”

Kali said a security guard from Bacchus House told club patrons to leave the smoking area and to stay inside the club until the altercations subsided.

“We were all brought in the central area of Bacchus House and [were] pretty much locked in because all these kids were running around with guns,” Kali said.

Lt. Schaufelberger said witnesses on the street told police they had seen weapons, and at least one reported hearing gunshots.

Bacchus House manager Aaron Turner said club patrons were not forced to stay inside the club, but security suggested people remain inside until the altercations ended.

Bacchus House owner Robi Cox said many businesses in the downtown North Park area were affected by teen gang violence that evening.

“They [the teens] just so happened to be going by the bar and they were hitting on every building, not just Bacchus House,” he said. “If it was someone standing in the street they would have done the same exact thing to him.”

In Mission Hills, a community meeting took place on Aug. 17 at the Mission Hills United Church of Christ to address recent crimes. Two residents in attendance said they were robbed at gunpoint.

During the meeting, Sam Shammas, who owns Mission Hills Liquor, located at West Lewis Street, said his wife, Susan, was working at the counter when a man came in, showed her a gun and proceeded to rob the store on Aug. 3.

Also present at the meeting was Mission Hills resident Robert Gains, who said the same man tried to rob him in broad daylight as he was walking down Fort Stockton Drive around 3:20 p.m. on Aug. 6. Gains said he was able to identify the man from a photo taken from Mission Hills Liquor’s surveillance camera, but the suspect remains at large.

These crimes follow another crime the Gay & Lesbian Times reported last month. On the evening of July 12, a gay man walking home from the Albertsons located on Washington Street in Mission Hills was robbed of his wallet and assaulted by four men along the south side of Washington Street near Albatross Street. The victim, who asked not to be identified in order to protect his privacy, said he believes the incident may have been hate-motivated due to the sheer violence of the attack.

City Commissioner Nicole M. Ramirez, who sits on the police chief’s advisory board, told the Gay & Lesbian Times a lesbian in Ocean Beach was the victim of a hate crime on Tuesday and was threatened with a shotgun. As of press time, the Gay & Lesbian Times is still investigating the incident.