Two charged in fatal New Year's Day shooting

An after-hours nightclub is back in business this weekend and two brothers face felony charges in the wake of Thursday's early morning fatal shooting outside the Taste in Cape Girardeau.

Club operator Patrick Buck said he stood just a foot from the man who shot Anton Shamon Miller in the back while outside the club at 402 Good Hope. The 25-year-old Miller lived at 411 S. Frederick St. in Cape Girardeau.

Buck later identified the alleged shooter through a police photo lineup as Samuel M. Houston, 20, of Thebes, Ill.

Buck says his business bears no responsibility in the 3:49 a.m. shooting.

"The police could have been standing in the same footsteps I was in, but there's nothing they could have done to stop this guy from doing that," he said. "He was never in the club. This is not an 'in the club' issue."

Houston is charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action. His bond was set at $2 million. His initial arraignment is set for 3 p.m. Monday.

Though the club doesn't sell alcohol, police said empty alcoholic beverage bottles were found inside after the shooting. Buck said he was too busy that night watching over the parking situation to catch everything patrons had on them.

"When I have to run outside all night, I'm not going to catch every single bottle that comes through the door," he said. "I can't be in two places at once."

If alcohol was allowed in the club, whether it could affect Buck's business license is uncertain, said city manager Doug Leslie. The officer's report on the alcohol will go to the city attorney, who could make a recommendation on what action is to be taken, if any.

Buck said he escorted the suspect's brother, 22-year-old Shamir Houston, outside after he tried to start a fight in the club just before the shooting. Miller followed and the two men fought. Buck said that's when Samuel Houston walked over from a car and fired several times at Miller.

Gun in sweat pants

Police found Shamir Houston, whose address is 25 Village Drive, No. 6, in Cape Girardeau, later in the morning at Southeast Missouri Hospital. He went there for treatment of injuries he sustained in the fight. A nurse found a .32-caliber gun in his sweat pants. For concealing a gun, he was charged with unlawful use of a weapon. His bond was set at $25,000.

Police do not believe that gun was used to kill Miller.

Police found a blue Corvette a parked few blocks away from the Taste, and they believe it was driven by Samuel Houston. But the murder weapon remains missing, said Lt. David James of the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department and commander of the Bollinger and Cape Girardeau County Major Case Squad. James declined to reveal how Samuel Houston was located.

Buck opened the Taste as a no-alcohol after-hours club in October, two years after the Cape Girardeau City Council took its liquor license away because of complaints about violence inside and outside the club.

No officer assigned

Unlike the first several weekends since the club's opening, no officers had been assigned to watch the New Year's crowd there, said police Sgt. Rick Schmidt.

"We stopped that. I was doing that every weekend, and there were no problems. ... Other than a couple loud stereos and some parking issues, that was it," Schmidt said. "There were not the problems that you could see outside the building that would warrant keeping an officer on time-and-a-half rate down there."

Schmidt said Buck has worked hard to keep the club from regaining a reputation as a neighborhood nuisance. The Taste staff place "no parking" signs along the block to keep patrons from bothering neighbors with noise, and they pick up trash left in neighbors' yards, Schmidt said.

Buck said he intends to speak to the city council about the club Monday night.

"We are going to continue to go out of our way to keep the neighbors from being disturbed," he said. "But it's open, and we're going to stay open."

mwells@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160