San Francisco, CA
September 12, 2009
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
by Jaxon Van Derbeken
San Francisco police investigating a slaying outside a Tenderloin strip club in June say their efforts are being impeded by the club’s security firm, an Oakland outfit founded by members of Your Black Muslim Bakery.
“It has been a real trying investigation,” Lt. Mike Stasko said of the probe into the slaying of 30-year-old Harris Fulbright at the Pink Diamonds club at 220 Jones St., which was guarded by the security firm once tied to the defunct Oakland organization.
“They haven’t been forthcoming,” Stasko said of the firm, UD Security Services. “They haven’t been cooperative.”
Fulbright was shot to death June 27 after he got into a dispute with someone in line at the club. Security guards reportedly told him to leave the area before the shooting. No one has been arrested.
Police said the firm and the club had agreed to implement certain security measures before the shooting, including installing video cameras. However, although police have asked for footage from that night, UD Security has not provided any, Stasko said.
“They didn’t have it hooked up, or they didn’t have it,” Stasko said.
Trying to close club
City Attorney Dennis Herrera is trying to close Pink Diamonds, saying the club – which is part-owned by a member of the city Entertainment Commission – has been dogged by a series of shootings and other problems.
Public records show that UD Security was started and operated by John Bey, an adopted son of the founder of Your Black Muslim Bakery, Yusuf Bey. The elder Bey ran the bakery until he died of cancer in 2003; his son Yusuf Bey IV eventually gained control but was indicted this year on murder charges in the 2007 deaths of Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey and two other men.
John Bey was shot and wounded in June 2005, an attack that Oakland police believe was linked to the power struggle that followed the bakery founder’s death.
San Francisco police say the security company is now run by another Bey family member, Hakim Bey. They say he has not been able to provide information about the Pink Diamonds shooting, despite repeated requests.
Efforts by The Chronicle to reach UD Security were not successful.
No list of employees
Among the information police hoped the firm would provide was a list of all its employees, so investigators could be sure they talked with everyone who might have been working at the club when Fulbright was killed. UD Security has not done so, Stasko said.
“They don’t have any records of who was there,” Stasko said. “Most of the people we talked to don’t know the last names of anybody.”
Stasko said people at the firm don’t return calls.
“I don’t want to use the term lying,” he said. “It’s a game. You wonder why we have all this trouble.
“You get a homicide in front of your club. You have some of your employees there, but nobody knows what is going on. One of the guys broke the fight up, but he doesn’t know anything about it.”
Stasko says police still need the public’s help to solve the case. “We’re still interested in having anyone with information contact us,” he said.
Lawyer defends guards
Brendan Hallinan, an attorney who represents Pink Diamonds, says the guards are doing what they can for police.
Hallinan, son of former San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan, said that the Tenderloin club has always posted six guards in and around the establishment, and that the guards who were there that night have worked with the police in the homicide investigation.
He said, the guards are confused about the line of questioning because police have shown more interest in their background than in what happened.
“It’s not really related to the operation; it’s more about personal stuff,” Hallinan said of the police questioning. “In terms of all operations of the business, (the guards) have been completely cooperative.”
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