Brookhaven board hears social-media and video evidence tying Medusa events to gang identifiers
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Summary
DeKalb County gang investigator and a city crime analyst told the Brookhaven Alcohol Licensing Board that social-media posts and two video clips admitted into evidence show repeated red apparel, hand signs and hashtags the detective described as Bloods identifiers; Medusa’s counsel disputes that the posts amount to licensable criminal conduct.
Detective Menifee, a gang investigator with the DeKalb County Police Department, told the Brookhaven Alcohol Licensing Board that social-media posts and two video clips admitted as evidence show repeated visual and verbal signals he associates with the Bloods criminal street gang.
The detective said social media and the video clips were “very paramount when it comes to gang investigations,” and pointed to photos and comments that, in his view, showed staff in red bandanas, a birthday cake marked with stylized references to Compton, and hashtags and tags that linked an account used by Shadi Mohammed to AMG and Rich Foundation. The board admitted exhibits 10–14 and two video clips (exhibits 16 and 17) over a foundation objection from defense counsel.
Why it matters: City witnesses argued the pattern of posts and the footage—together with investigator corroboration that a person identified in the posts is a validated gang member—creates a public-safety concern the board can consider in reviewing Medusa Restaurant Lounge’s alcohol license.
The city’s crime analyst testified she located names and aliases from incident reports on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and provided screenshots to the investigating officers. She also confirmed she did not run criminal-background checks as part of the social-media search and handed collected screenshots to the lead detective and gang investigator for follow-up.
Medusa’s defense counsel challenged both the provenance of some social-media content and whether the posts and videos are sufficient to prove regulatory violations. In cross-examination, counsel objected that the city had not produced some video material in response to open-records requests; the board received the clips for consideration and allowed them into the record.
Detective Menifee summarized the indicators he says are meaningful to gang affiliation: color patterns (notably red clothing and bandanas), certain hand signals, tattoos and repeated textual references in comments and hashtags. He told the board that the totality of the posts, tags and comments led him to assess ongoing association between some patrons and the national criminal enterprise known as the Bloods.
Detective Menifee also said information from the lead detective indicated the person who shot and injured Shadi Mohammed was a member of a different Bloods set, though he did not recall the shooter’s name during testimony.
What happens next: The board moved to executive session to deliberate and said it would issue a written decision within 10 days.
