Alexandria Mayor Jacques Roy shared his reaction during his June 3 briefing to the Lee Street nightclub shooting that took place over the weekend. 

Mayor Roy’s briefing focused on the relationship between poor code enforcement and the breakdown of community ties and how they lead to violent crimes like the one that occurred at the nightclub on May 31. The mayor alleged that the nightclub failed to operate its business as legally required. This, Mayor Roy said, resulted in a clearly “catastrophic result.”

He went on to say, “I can not stress enough to you, what we know at the staff level, of how the relationship between zoning violations, dilapidated properties and all the things that go with it, contribute to crime, and specifically violent crime.”

Mayor Roy also discussed strategies for improving the effectiveness of the police department. These strategies included increasing the presence of community resource officers and employing technology like drones and cameras to improve security in the community.