Downtown Gilbert garages are hooligan hangouts

May 27—Gilbert's two parking garages in the Heritage District have become a popular hangout with teen hooligans for drinking and drug use.

A handful of residents who have taken it upon themselves to patrol the Ash Street and the Hearne Plaza garages asked the town last week for the second time to put a stop to it. The Hearne garage was the site of an assault and last week, an accidental death.

"I have to say it's been incredibly frustrating to see the things we have seen," said Charisia Arnold at the May 21 council meeting. "This has been going on for a long time and should have been rectified a long time ago.

"Kids are drinking underage up there. We've sat and watched drugs get rolled right in front of our eyes and this is all within the last few weeks."

Arnold later said that she and about six others have been monitoring the two town-owned garages for the past four months and seriously stepped it up in the last two months.

"We just walk around the garages and do it casually," Arnold said. "We're trying to understand what is going on — why the activity is the way it is in the garages, why kids are hanging out there and what's going on."

Arnold said they monitor the garages randomly and have seen anywhere from a handful of teens to 50 to 80 at one time inside the garages, loitering, peeling their vehicles in and out and pouring liquid from off the top of the parking structures.

"We've seen quite a bit of stuff going on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights," she said. "It's mostly teenagers in there, at least 14 and up. Certainly there are some younger kids in there."

She's also seen men in their 40s hanging out at the garages and she said they've seen spotters at the garages who alert others when they see police coming.

Arnold said she was at the Hearne garage three hours before a 19-year-old man fell to his death last Tuesday.

According to Gilbert Police, Mubasher Masood fell off of the top of the multi-story parking garage down to the ground below and suffered fatal injuries.

Police said that the initial investigation, which included reviewing the video surveillance, showed that Masood "was allegedly intoxicated when he arrived at the parking garage with friends."

"Immediately upon arrival, the individual exited the vehicle and attempted to lift himself on the 4-foot-tall ledge of the parking garage top retaining wall," Police said. "He immediately lost his balance and fell to the sidewalk approximately 56 feet below."

And in January, Police arrested three people, aged 17, 18 and 19, who were indicted for aggravated assault on an adult at the Hearne garage in December 2022. The three are allegedly associated with the Gilbert Goons, officially declared a criminal street gang earlier this month by law enforcement.

The Goons are blamed for a number of vicious attacks in the East Valley that have occurred for well over a year.

Teen violence took center stage in the East Valley following the October fatal beating of 16-year-old Preston Lord. The Chandler teen was at a residential Halloween party in Queen Creek when he was set upon by seven suspects ranging in age from 17-20. They also are alleged to be part of the Goons.

Arnold acknowledged the heightened police presence but noted that officers "can't staff it all the time."

She and the others in her group want police to upgrade the cameras in the garages and to charge for parking.

"We've been told by officers that they can't even ID faces from 10 feet away," she said. "The cameras are very bad up there."

She said they want cameras that can take pictures of people and license plates as vehicles enter the garage.

Police Chief Michael Soelberg last week said the installation of upgraded cameras in Hearne is nearly completed and that the Ash Street garage cameras are next. He also said that his department has increased patrol of the garages since 2018 and noted that a bicycle patrol unit is based out of the Hearne garage.

According to police, the camera upgrades will improve the video quality from "low resolution" to "high traffic area resolution."

"It is important to note that the security cameras at both Heritage District parking garages are, and have been, operational and will continue to be operational throughout this upgrade," a Gilbert Police spokesman said. "We do not have facial recognition or license plate readers on our current or upgraded security cameras. "

Arnold also suggested charging $10 to use the garages that parking would be free for those who validate their parking tickets at a restaurant.

"The problem now is people have a free place to go," she said. "If they charge, they are less likely to go and hang out there."

Arnold said a majority of the young people who go to the garages arrive by vehicles.

The chief last week said charging a fee was an option but that it has been council's policy to have free parking downtown.

Bridget Vega, who is part of the patrol group, also took the town to task for not doing more to address the situation at the garages.

"Gilbert has a gang problem," she said. "We need you as the leadership to step up to be proactive versus reactive.

Unless people are cited and charged for continuously loitering, drugs, underage drinking, we won't see any change," she said.

Scott Myers at the May 7 council meeting claimed the group had called the Police's non-emergency number for underage drinking and vaping at the Hearne garage only to have three bike patrol officers let the kids drive away.

Vega also told the council that as "the result of the lack of your actions a 19-year-old died and fell off the top of the garage."

She claimed that officers have stated that "there's been multiple kids on the ledge and they are surprised they hadn't seen more deaths."

"So, that actually is concerning, seeing that coming out of your officers' mouths," Vega continued. "We ask that all of you take your council hats off and take a break from your paid engagements and take a walk to the top of the garages.

"We have no future if we don't protect the children. We have a duty to protect and Gilbert you have blood on your hands."

The council did take steps last week to get a handle on the teen violence situation by banning those under 18 years old from having brass knuckles and by adopting an ordinance that allows the town to go after those responsible for holding an unruly gathering.