LoDo Nightclub Closes After Bizarre Response to Shooting

Status Ultra Lounge is closed after the City of Denver declared the nightclub at 1822 Blake Street a “public nuisance.”

The city left a notice on the door that cited “unlawful use, firing, or discharging of any firearm.” The club will have to show cause to the Department of Licensing & Consumer Protection on January 9 to argue that its license should not be suspended or revoked.

Status opened on New Year’s Eve 2022 in the space that was previously occupied by the gay nightclub Sir, which opened in January 2022 and closed three months later. Before that, the building housed Vesta, an upscale restaurant that closed in 2020 after 23 years in business. Status owners Jessie Mack, Gabriel Lindsay and Neelin Shead had once run Onyx Ultra Lounge, which was also closed by the City of Denver, citing shootings at the establishment.

The nuisance declaration comes after a string of complaints about the club. The most recent notice refers to an August 14 incident when a Denver police officer “observed a vehicle with several males standing around it parked in one of the parking spots in the rear of Status Ultra Lounge (the ‘Club’),” according to the department’s report.

“While observing the vehicle, the officer heard a single gunshot,” the report says. “The officer gave commands to prevent the group of males from leaving the area. Some of the males fled into the Club through a rear door. The males opened the door by inputting a code to unlock the door. Once other officers arrived, additional commands were given for the males inside the Club to exit; those commands were ignored.”

The officers inspected the vehicle and found a live round of ammunition in the driver’s seat. “Further, while officers were at the vehicle, it beeped several times,” the report notes, “as if someone nearby was attempting to lock the doors to the vehicle with a remote key.”

Later, it was discovered that the car was registered to a business owned by Mack, one of the co-owners of Status along with Lindsay and Shead. But when he was questioned, Lindsay “denied any knowledge of the incident and informed the officers that there was no surveillance footage of the incident, claiming the surveillance system had been malfunctioning.” According to the report, “the timeframe of video that would have captured the shooting was missing entirely from the surveillance recording system.”

However, it turned out the surveillance system had indeed captured the incident.

The Denver Crime Lab recovered deleted footage from the surveillance system that showed the hard drive for the system was reformatted at 1:08 p.m. on August 14, the same day as the shooting. “The recorded video shows the gun shot,” the report says, “and several individuals entering the Club through the rear door after the shooting.”

According to the department, Status is responsible for several offenses, including obstruction of justice, interference with police authority, false reporting to authorities and tampering with evidence. It also says Status neglected to follow a previous order accepting a settlement made in June for violations on December 22, 2024, and January 1 of this year.

The club had a rocky and rushed opening that drew attention from neighbors for overflowing trash bins, soundproofing issues and an unprepared security team that caused long lines and crowds outside the space, leading other clubs to close early. At the time, general manager Tommie Ellis told Westword he was aware of what can happen if a business becomes the subject of scrutiny from police or other city agencies, citing the closure of Beta in 2022 after a laundry list of violations.

Westword has reached out to Lindsay for comment. The case is pending.