Two shot outside downtown Buffalo club

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Two people were injured in an overnight shooting outside a downtown restaurant.

Buffalo Police say what started as an altercation between two patrons inside Kings Court Restaurant, ended in gunfire outside on Delaware Avenue, just before 3 a.m. Saturday.

The suspect is said to have pulled a gun from his vehicle and fired, grazing 24-year-old Demario Castricone of Buffalo and a security guard who was trying to break up the fight, 30-year-old Jamie Burgess, also of Buffalo.

Danielle Hicks lives in one of the four apartments upstairs from Kings Court. Since her family moved in there several months ago, Hicks says she has grown accustomed to the loud noise from the bar downstairs.

But what she heard overnight was different enough to let her know, something was wrong.

The music shut off, Hicks recalls, and then, "For some reason, you heard 'Get him out of here! Call the security!' So they pushed him out. And I heard cops. I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know there was a gun involved, or anything. But I heard the noise."

"It's scary, when you know that you live right above the club; you're right there. You can hear everything going on. If a gunshot would've shot, it could've struck one of our beds and that's scary," says Hicks. "Me and my mother are both extremely scared about what they could be doing downstairs.

Hicks and her family aren't the only ones worried about their safety. Directly across the street, the Avant building is full of residents and hotel guests.

"This once was a good club. I will not put the club down, because it once was a good club," Aretha Hicks tells News 4. "But they need to just, how can I say, change their age group. I think it should be from 35 on up. Because the majority of [the patrons]... haven't mentally grown. So this is why we have so many problems."

"They need to do something about making sure that everybody's not carrying anything that they're not supposed to," Danielle adds. "It's downtown. People usually come downtown and start things. I don't see why they don't pat people down."

The Hicks family is now looking for someplace safer to call home.

Says Aretha Hicks, "I feel bad that they have so many problems here. Everybody's trying to make a living. Times [are] hard. I wish them the best, but I have to take my kids out of here before something else happens."

Demario Castricone is in stable condition at ECMC. Jamie Burgess has been released.

There is no description of the suspect, but police say, he took off in a dark or gray Jeep Cherokee. They're asking for your tips at 847-2255.