Co-owner of DeKalb strip club shot, killed

By Christian Boone

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Police believe robbery was the motive behind the fatal shooting Tuesday afternoon of the co-owner of a DeKalb strip club.

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Phil Skinner, pskinner@ajc.com Two unidentified women cry as Terry Stephenson's pickup truck is towed from in front of Pin Up's Adult Entertainment club where he was fatally shot on Tuesday.

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Phil Skinner, pskinner@ajc.com Dekalb County Police crime scene investigators inspect a fatal crime scene at Pin Up's Adult Entertainment off East Ponce de Leon in Decatur on Tuesday, Sept. 7th. According to witnesses, Terry Stephenson, one of Pin Ups' owners, was shot several times and died.

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Terry Stephenson, 49, was shot repeatedly outside the entrance of Pin Up's, located just east of Decatur on E. Ponce De Leon Avenue.

A friend of the victim, nightclub owner Doug Cocchi, said Stephenson, a former firefighter, was en route to the bank to deposit the club's holiday weekend profits.

"They must have ambushed him," said Cocchi, who co-owned a club with Stephenson's late father.

Stephenson, shot four times, died on the way to a local hospital, DeKalb police spokeswoman Mekka Parish said. At least two suspects are being sought, but identifying them may be a challenge, as Pin Up's does not have security cameras outside the club. However, a neighboring grocery store does have a surveillance camera that police were reviewing.

Becky Chow, owner of the First Oriental Market, said she heard two sets of gunshots. She said it sounded like someone was "banging on the glass." A customer at the store spotted a car leaving the strip club after the shooting, Chow told the AJC.

Police got the call around 1 p.m., Parish said. Employees were told not to speak with the media, but a maintenance worker who asked not to be identified described the scene from inside the club.

"I knew it was gunshots and I walked in the kitchen and saw all the girls running back," said the worker, who estimated there were  40 people inside the club at the time of the shooting. He said Stephenson was shot multiple times in the chest and once in the face.

"It was execution style," he said.

Police labeled nine shell casings outside the club's entrance, though it appears the victim, who, according to employees, carried two guns on him, didn't have a chance to return fire.

Cocchi said Stephenson, married with children, was "a straight-up guy."