Police shut down several bars Wednesday evening, report 21
automobile accidents during Thanksgiving holiday period
Morgan Hill – Though the holiday weekend was mostly trouble-free in Morgan Hill, police officers did respond to an armed robbery early Saturday morning and shut down several bars Wednesday evening.
Morgan Hill police Sgt. David Swing said the 7-Eleven convenience store on West Main Avenue at Crest Avenue was the target for two male suspects at approximately 2:15am.
Two men dressed entirely in black walked into the store and confronted the male clerk, who was alone in the store, Swing said. The men, who were wearing black ski masks, demanded the clerk give them the money in the cash register; one of them pulled out a black handgun, revolver style, and pointed it at the clerk.
Swing said the clerk handed over the money from the cash drawer and was not injured. He said he could not release the amount of money the suspects walked away with.
The clerk told police the suspects did not get into a vehicle after leaving the store, but headed east on West Main Avenue on foot. Swing said the clerk described the men as approximately 5’4″ and 5’6″ tall.
Anyone with information about the robbery or the suspects is asked to call the MHPD at (408) 779-2101; to give information anonymously, call Crime Stoppers at 947-STOP (7867).
There were other calls for service during the Thanksgiving holiday time period. Kicking off the holiday, officers closed down two bars Wednesday evening after crowds were so large they were violating the fire code.
Swing said the closures arose from what has become an annual event, “similar to a Morgan Hill reunion” of high school graduates who are over 21; they gather each year the night before Thanksgiving at what is now Strikes Lounge but used to be Betsy’s in the Tennant Station shopping center, he said. This year, there were just too many people gathered there, and at approximately 8:30-8:45pm, Swing said, Strikes was closed by the fire marshal.
The crowd then moved to the Box Seat sports bar, but once again was too large for the venue, and the bar was closed, Swing said. A smaller crowd then moved to the M&H Tavern, but officers did not have to shut down the downtown bar.
The California Highway Patrol also had a relatively quiet holiday, according to CHP Officer Brad Voyles.
“We had fewer crashes this year, and no fatals,” Voyles said. “It was a very minor weekend.”
From 6pm Wednesday until midnight Sunday, there were 21 crashes in the area, six of them with injuries and two of them related to driving under the influence, he said. The department was still tabulating the number of DUI arrests at presstime.
“There’s no way, really, for us to determine why we had less crashes; of course, we hope it is that people are driving sensibly, following the rules of the road,” Voyles said. “Of course, probably one of the factors that contributed was the traffic. There were so many people out on the roads, traveling, shopping, that drivers couldn’t go very fast.”
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106 ext. 202 or at md****@mo*************.com.
