‘Then, bang, it happened’

With the piquant scent of a hot sub sizzling on the grill, the sports décor and the caricatures of food servers on the wall, it’s hard to imagine violence breaking out in a place as congenial and collegiate as Pacino’s Deli on the Corner.
Jim George, who advises the sub shop’s owner on the sandwich business, still doesn’t believe it.

“It’s awful. Who would have thought? The family of the guy that died has to be devastated, and we’re still in shock,” he says, standing outside the deli, next to the Baja Bean Restaurant on West Main Street. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
What doesn’t make sense is that Sunday morning gunfire during a private party in the deli’s upstairs dining room killed Phillip E. Adams Jr., 22, of Charlottesville.
Darryl Andre Johnson, 20, also of Charlottesville, turned himself in Sunday evening. He is charged with murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a murder, malicious wounding and use of a firearm in the commission of a malicious wounding.
George, and the disc jockey who played music during the party, both said there was no indication that violence was about to erupt.
“Everyone was laughing and dancing and singing,” George recalled. “The people who rented the room hired
security and we were making sure we didn’t have too many people in there. Everything was done right and then, bang, it happened: gunshots.”

DJ Greedy, also known as Dwayne “Pee-Wee” Tracy, was playing music when the gunfire erupted.
“It wasn’t even crunk music — music about guns and gangs — I was playing some soft stuff for the ladies and everyone was having a good time,” he recalled. “Then it just happened.”
George, who was downstairs at the time, said a man identified later as Adams staggered down the steps and onto the sidewalk, where he was helped to the ground and tended to by restaurant employees and friends.
Tracy and George said they’ve heard various versions of what happened. The most-often told story has two men tussling, one being knocked down and firing a weapon from the floor.
“I couldn’t really see what happened,” Tracy said. “Everyone was mellow and having a good time and then it was gunshots.”

Police said they were called to the 1300 block of West Main Street around 2 a.m. Sunday and found Adams on the sidewalk with a gunshot wound to the chest. He was taken to the University of Virginia Medical Center, where he died a short time later. One other person was shot and two more were injured in the incident, according to police.
Police are continuing to investigate but say preliminary reports indicate the other three victims were not targeted in the shooting. They declined to release the victims’ names.
The shooting marks the fifth homicide in Charlottesville this year, compared with three in the city in 2007. Despite the surge in slayings, violent crime, including rape, robbery and aggravated assault, has dropped 10 percent, according to the police department. Albemarle County’s violent crime appears to be on about the same pace as a year ago.

But, in a span of two weeks at September’s end, three people were killed, one in Charlottesville and two in Albemarle.
“You can’t rest on your laurels just because your numbers are down,” Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy J. Longo said. “I can’t look a family in the eye whose son has just been killed and say the numbers are down.”
The numbers mean little to George. To him, it’s about what happened and the restaurant’s reputation. He said the shooting is the first and only incident in the 18 months that Pacino’s Deli has been open. The deli serves beer but has no bar and serves no liquor.

“We’re all about real Italian sandwiches and real subs, good food and catering,” George said. “This is so out of place. It was the first time we ever rented the dining room for a private party. It’s the last time, too.”