Five people were hospitalized with stab wounds following a massive brawl inside a notorious 64th Street karaoke bar early on Monday — and Bay Ridge residents are demanding that the state shut down the problem-plagued nightclub.
Cops arrested Chun He Lin and charged him with stabbing five people after an argument inside the Crown KTV club between Eighth and Ninth avenues spilled out into the street. Lin was not only charged with assault and weapons possession — but also drug possession.
That drug charge may hold the key to local efforts to shut down the club.
Last August, state cops raided the club and found underage drinking and drugs rampant — including a man caught snorting cocaine right off the bar. A judge threw out most of the charges, but the State Liquor Authority is investigating whether the charges, and the latest incident, are enough to revoke the all-important booze license.
“The charges are serious,” said Michael Jones, deputy chief executive officer of the liquor agency.
Jones added that the stabbing could bolster a case to shut down the bar — as long as officials can prove the club was at fault.
“We have to show that the premises was responsible for what happened outside,” he said.
Neighbors have been complaining about the club since even before it opened in 2009.
Owners presented their vision for a family-friendly singing joint that March, but members of Community Board 10 were convinced that the small singing rooms — a common element of karaoke joints in Manhattan — were merely a front for prostitution.
“We don’t need no hookers here!” one member of the board shouted at a March 16 hearing.
By September, the club finally won the approval of CB10 — but only after owners promised to adhere to a 12-point safety plan that included stipulations that the club would observe all music and noise regulations, employ two security guards from 8 pm to 4 am, only admit patrons over age 21, install a video surveillance system, eschew velvet ropes or other sidewalk obstructions, involve no outside promoters, and never use the words “music club or night club” on its sign.
It is unclear if the club lived up to all its promises, but in May, CB10 District Manager Josephine Beckmann and board Chairwoman Joanne Seminara told state authorities that said the club was allowing dancing and loud music. They also mentioned reports of drug use.
“They were representing the establishment as being a family restaurant that had karaoke, but when you went inside, it looked like a nightclub,” said Beckmann.
Since then, the club has not made headlines, said Capt. Richard DiBlasio, commanding officer of the 68th Precinct, who denied that the spot was especially dangerous.
But that didn’t convince Beckmann.
“The incident has really put people on edge,” she said.
It also put five people on edge — the edge of a knife, according to police.
A 48-year-old man suffered multiple chest wounds and was in critical condition at Lutheran Hospital, cops said. Three others were in stable condition and another, a 48-year-old woman, was released after doctors treated a wound to her forearm.
Cops said the bloody melee was likely the sole work of Lin, but they are still investigating.
“Right now I feel pretty confident that we arrested the right person,” said DiBlasio.
Club employees who answered the phone on Monday evening hung up on a reporter twice.
