Charlotte LGBT Nightclubs Increase Security After Orlando Shooting

CHARLOTTE, N.C.–Woodshed is just one of several gay bars in the Charlotte area.

CMPD visited them earlier this week with safety tips they say they will use.

Timothy Lee has been a bartender at Woodshed bar in West Charlotte for nearly a decade and says the recent mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub hits home.

“I think it’s always important to be vigilant unfortunately, it takes an incident like this to make you re-focus,” says Lee.

Lee says CMPD visited his bar this week to go over the bars safety plan.

“We have doors open patio…bartender on patio who sort of is the manager there.  Inside a bartender, so pretty much all areas of bar especially on busy nights are covered from all angles,” says Lee.

The club is also enforcing a no backpack policy, no large bags allowed and will make everyone, even the regulars show ID and sign in.

He says officers plan to step up patrols this weekend.

“They’re not here to look for anything wrong they want a presence, they want the club owners and bar owners to know there here and it’s really just an extra safeguard,” says Lee.