TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — "I could almost guarantee if the hookah lounge wasn't there, this wouldn't be happening," said Rafael Gil, owner of Puff and Stuff Smoke Shop in response to the shooting over the weekend on Speedway and Swan.
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The issue, he described, is the groups of people who show up to parking lots in the area just after 2 a.m. He and owners of other businesses say it's the late hours of the hookah lounge that attracts the crowds.
The smoke shop owners, open 24/7, has had to block off their parking lot following a series of incidents prior to the shooting early Sunday morning.
In April 2021, surveillance shows one of his employees asked the people parked out front to move their cars because they were not customers. This led to a violent altercation.
Rafael Gil recalled this was the first incident that affected his business. He said this was just after the hookah lounge re-opened following closures related to the pandemic.
“They started pointing guns at our shop and kicked in the glass until it shattered. And that was basically our first encounter with traffic out front,” he said.
He reported the incident to the City of Tucson, and the Arizona Hookah Lounge received a red tag violation. Court documents show the violation was dismissed.
While the smoke shop has tried to make it work by placing cones to block the crowd from using their lot to park, several businesses shared how many others have moved out to flee the chaos.
“This is not my fault,” said Husam Baker, owner of Arizona Hookah Lounge. In an exclusive interview with KGUN 9, he shared what happened just before 3 a.m. early Sunday.
“They told me to duck because there were shots being fired across the street,” he said.
When reports of the incident came through on the Tucson Police Scanner early Sunday, an officer said, "We've got a massive gun battle over here at the hookah lounge.”
Baker said the scene early Sunday night did not start at his hookah lounge, adding none of the people involved were his customers.
Surveillance from another nearby business shows someone being moved into an ambulance by first responders next to the parking lot of the hookah lounge.
“And the six years that I've been here I've never had any issues. There have never been any shots fired," he said. He said the issues have always been in the parking lot northwest of Speedway and Swan.
KGUN 9's Reyna Preciado asked the owner if he remembered a shooting outside of his business just a few months ago. He said there's never been a shooting in his parking lot.
She showed him the surveillance video of the shooting. KGUN 9's anchor Heidi Alagha translated his response from Arabic, “He says he doesn't know who these people are but they just don't want his business to succeed.”
Baker has owned the business at this location since 2018. Court records show he's received violations at the current location, but also before 2018. He said the problems started with Puff and Stuff Smoke Shop moved into the strip mall in 2020.
Surveillance video provided by the smoke shop owner showed people parking in his lot and walking toward the hookah lounge in 2021. The video shows the parking lot northwest of Speedway and Swan empty.
Rafael Gil started blocking off parking, he said, in the fall of 2023. When asked if that's when more people started parking in the parking lot across the street, he said, "100%."
KGUN 9 will continue to follow this story for updates.
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Reyna Preciado is a reporter for KGUN 9, she joined the KGUN 9 team in July of 2022 after graduating Arizona State University. Share your story ideas with Reyna by emailing reyna.preciado@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, or Twitter.
