TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa City Council members held a moment of silence Thursday to honor the lives of two victims killed in Sunday’s shootings in Ybor City before discussing if a curfew is needed in the district.

Tampa’s City Council heard a proposal that would temporarily require businesses in the Historic Ybor District to close at 1 a.m.

City leaders heard from Ybor business owners who pleaded with them to not go forward with the proposal. After hours of back and forth, no official decision was made. But the meeting became rather heated.

Dozens of owners and people who work in Ybor said shutting down the busy street at 1 a.m. isn’t the solution. The one thing everyone agreed on is that something needs to change, but not at the expense of businesses. 

Sunday’s shootings happened just before 3 a.m.

“There’s no justifiable reason to limit our operating hours solely because of an isolated, unfortunate incident,” said Candice Colucci, whose family owns Club Prana. “Such a measure unfairly punishes reasonable business owners and their employees who earn income there.”

Jamaris Glenn, the owner of 7th + Grove, said he has seen violence in the area, but said it’s not just isolated to Ybor City.

“We understand this is a narrative for Ybor in which people don’t feel secure and we want the narrative to change,” he said.

Glenn said he realizes it’s an uphill battle and that before he came to his restaurant Thursday, he was making that point at the city council meeting.

“I would have to lay off my dishwashers,” Glenn said of a 1 a.m. curfew. “We hire felons, single mothers, we hire people who are transgender, we hire the unhoused, and putting those curfews is a big strike to our labor because we’ve already suffered enough.” 

He told Spectrum Bay News 9, “I’m all for policies, but shutting business from 1 a.m to 3 a.m., I have a lot of employees here that have families. It’s holiday time and they’re looking for things to purchase for their families,” he said. “Rent is due and shutting down at 1 a.m. shuts down a big part of our labor.”

Like most people, he said he was shocked when shots rang out in the area Sunday, killing 20-year-old Harrison Boonstoppel and 14-year-old Elijah Wilson, and injuring 16 others. Investigators say they found a concealed loaded gun on the 14-year-old after he was shot and killed.

Glenn said the story is sad, but could have happened anywhere.

“I think it’s really not a Ybor thing, more than it’s a gun control thing. Unfortunately, this young man, a 14-year-old boy, Elijah Wilson, he was again just a victim of a failed system,” he said.

He believes there are solutions city leaders can cook up to make the streets here safer.

“Ensuring there’s enough police, especially around those times that they feel like at 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. is a difficult time, or they feel like that’s where the most violence occurs. Well then, that’s when I think we need to bulk up on the police presence,” he said.

City leaders have asked for police to present a Ybor policing plan to help curb violence in the area.

Other things, like funding for youth activities, were also discussed as possible options, along with an idea of keeping 7th Avenue open to traffic to limit loitering in the streets.

It’s a long list of possible solutions that leaders now have to work with.