POCATELLO — A business owner and a community leader say they have never felt unsafe in downtown Pocatello despite multiple violent incidents happening in the area during the past year.

Nathan Tad Richardson, 30, of Pocatello, died last June as a result of injuries suffered during an altercation after a night of drinking at the Center Street Clubhouse, while a Pocatello man has been accused of opening fire on two people during a melee on West Center Street in September.

Most recently, there was an apparent shootout between two groups on Sunday in the vicinity of East Center Street and Second Avenue.

But two people who spend most of their time in downtown Pocatello — J.D. Hansen, the owner of J & Company Salon and Spa and the human resource manager for the Officer Bar & Grill, and Stephanie Palagi, the executive director of Old Town Pocatello Inc. and the Historic Old Town Pocatello Foundation — not only think that the downtown area is safe, but are doing everything they can to make it even safer.

Hansen told the Journal on Monday that the Office Bar & Grill plans to host a meeting this week with all of the downtown bar owners of Pocatello to develop what he called a “no-nonsense policy.”

“The bar owners want to come together and do what they can to try and mitigate these issues because we want people to come out and enjoy downtown Pocatello,” Hansen said. “A ‘no-nonsense policy’ means that if anybody looks like they are having a bad night, we will be happy to send them on their way and then let the staff of other bars know.”

Hansen continued, “Basically, we are going to open up lines of communication between the bars so that if someone is cut off at one bar then the other bars will obviously know they are cut off. Or if someone is violent at one bar and we are throwing them out, we will inform the other bars so they don’t go and cause a ruckus someplace else.”

And with the weather warming up and the seasons changing, Palagi said she has been in contact with the Pocatello Police Department to request additional foot and bike patrols to provide an elevated sense of security to those who frequent the downtown area.

“The door-to-door community policing is extremely important to any downtown area because as Pocatello continues to grow, crime is unfortunately going to continue to happen,” Palagi said. “What we need is continued policing and continued vigilance.”

Palagi continued, “But there is not one day or one moment that I don’t feel safe being downtown.”

While two brothers face murder charges in connection to the altercation leading to Richardson’s death, the man who shot at two people during a melee that involved five men attacking two other people in an alleyway faces up to 20 years in prison.

However, no charges have been filed in connection to the apparent shootout on Sunday. All three violent incidents that have occurred in the downtown Pocatello area during the last year have happened after 2 a.m.

The shootout on Sunday happened around 2:15 a.m. and resulted in numerous people reporting the gunfire to the Pocatello police.

Police said they do not believe that anyone was hit by the gunfire because they found no blood evidence at the scene. However, the gunfire did hit two unoccupied vehicles and a building. Police said they believe the gunfire was exchanged by two groups of people who were on foot at the time.

Several police units responded to the East Center Street and Second Avenue area after the gunfire was reported, but the people involved in the shooting had already fled.

Police said they found at least four shell casings in the 100 block of North Second Avenue and closed that block to traffic so they could further investigate.

Police initially thought that a white car seen fleeing the area immediately after the shooting was somehow involved. Officers later tracked down the vehicle and determined that its driver was not involved but had quickly sped away from the area because the sound of the gunfire triggered his post-traumatic stress disorder.

Capt. Roger Schei with the Pocatello Police Department told the Journal on Monday that no additional information was available for release surrounding the shooting.

Bannock County Prosecutor Steve Herzog said he’s unsure if there has been an uptick of violent incidents in downtown Pocatello recently, but he did say the incidents that have occurred are certainly concerning.

Pocatello Police Chief Scott Marchand said he feels like Pocatello is no different than any other community, adding that he and other officers on the force will continue to have a presence in the downtown area.

While Marchand said he doesn’t believe that the recent violent incidents are a result of Bannock County being declared a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area by the U.S. Department of Justice, Hansen said he thinks the classification hasn’t helped matters.

“Incidents like this truly suck,” Hansen said. “With the violence in Old Town, it sucks because I don’t think it’s going to be one of those things that goes away immediately. Right now, with the current drug trends that we are seeing in Pocatello, we are experiencing growing pains across the entire city.”

Violent crimes happen all over the city, all over the state and all over the country every day, according to Hansen. And while downtown Pocatello has not been immune to violence, Hansen said these apparent violent attacks have never had a direct effect on his own personal feeling of safety.

“I work in the salon six or seven days every week, I’m downtown every day between filling in at The Office or attending board meetings and I feel safe every second of every day,” Hansen said. “I walk around downtown late at night constantly because I try and promote every downtown business.”

Hansen continued, “I eat downtown, I drink downtown. I love our bars and I want to make sure that part of downtown doesn’t go away. I absolutely do not carry a gun, I have never carried a knife either and I have never felt uncomfortable or out of place, ever. Incidents like this just suck.”