Businesses worry about perception of Tucson mass shooting

Most of the businesses along that stretch between South Fifth Avenue and South Stone Avenue were forced to keep their doors closed while police investigated the nearby scene of Sunday’s early morning mass shooting that left 10 people injured, including the suspect.

An employee of Iguana Cafe & Bar at 210 E. Congress said Monday that employees couldn’t get past the barriers, and neither could customers. It was the same for employees at the two-week-old Gibson Food Hall & Market around the corner at 11 S. Sixth Ave.

“I don't think any of us understood really the impact until the next morning,” said Nick Wayne Eggman, who with his business partner John Hardin owns Gibson and the HighWire Tucson bar and lounge behind the market on South Arizona Avenue. “We figured the cops will clear out, we'll open as usual.”

Eggman got a heads up to the shooting early Sunday, not long after HighWire patrons were starting to filter out just after 2 a.m. Eggman said his employees reported hearing what sounded like gunshots, but it took the blaring sirens descending on the 100 block of East Congress before anyone understood the gravity of the situation.

“Anytime there's gun violence, and for whatever reason this happens from time to time downtown, it's very scary,” Eggman said. “It's not good for business, not good for Tucson. Unfortunately, you know it's a fact of life. These things do happen.”

“There's just kind of this ripple of fear, you know, uneasiness,” said longtime downtown restauranteur Ray Flores, whose family’s El Charro Cafe has been in business downtown for more than a century; the family also operates Charro Steak & del Rey on East Broadway and The Monica on East Congress near South Church Avenue. “We have owned and operated in the urban core; we're used to things that have been going on for generations down there.”

But the recent level of violence, including the deadly hatchet attack on a tourist in spring 2025 has a chilling effect that “compounds a challenge we have in downtown that no Rio Nuevo investment can fix, which is a perception that that's the reality,” Flores said, referring to the downtown redevelopment taxing district.

Eggman also wonders what sort of long-term impact Sunday’s shooting will have on people’s perception of downtown. If Monday was any indication, he said he’s encouraged.

“It’s not even noon yet and there’s people already having lunch,” he said.

In the next few weeks, Grant Krueger hopes to open his long-awaited Block A Sports Bar & Grill in the former home of Hi-Fi Kitchen & Cocktails at 345 E. Congress. Krueger said he and his Union Hospitality Group (Union Public House, Reforma Modern Mexican, Proof Artisanal Pizza & Pasta) are “coming downtown to be part of the solution, not to worry about the problem.”

“This is a tremendous tragedy. It's also a numbers game that at some point something like this can or will happen in just about any urban city,” Krueger said. “I'm from Detroit, Michigan, originally, and so we know a few things or two about crime in Detroit, and there's not any place in Tucson as scary as coming from a city like Detroit.”