Nisha Berry’s 4-year-old son wakes up asking about heaven. He wants to know why his father isn’t coming home, why he can’t pick him up in the truck he drove to support their family.
Nearly a month after Steven Joseph was shot and killed outside Hurricane Betty’s, Berry stood before the Worcester License Commission on Thursday and described a family struggling to survive without him.
“My son is four and wakes up every morning, and I have to keep explaining to my four-year-old what heaven means and why his dad is not coming back from heaven,” she told commissioners.
Then she pleaded for the adult entertainment club to be shut down.
“I don’t want no other little boy, no other little girl in this world to have to deal with this,” she said.
Minutes later, the commission voted unanimously and without pause or debate to revoke Hurricane Betty’s liquor and entertainment licenses, effectively closing the longtime strip club at 350 Southbridge St. The decision followed a detailed police account of licensing and security violations surrounding the Oct. 11 shooting that killed Joseph and wounded another man.
The revocations took effect immediately. An attorney for the club asked commissioners to delay the decision pending an appeal to the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, but the request was rejected, with commissioners barely waiting for the request to be finished before offering a resounding “no.”
The vote followed testimony from Worcester Police Sgt. Thomas Needham, who walked commissioners and the audience through a deadly evening in which the establishment operated beyond its permitted capacity, served alcohol after the required cutoff, allowing patrons to bypass security screening and failing to contact police promptly as violence escalated outside.
Commission Chairman Anthony Vigliotti, too, quickly rejected the club’s proposal to overhaul its security and management practices.
“That’s a horrendous report,” Vigliotti said. “It’s like in your face that nobody cares. It was just like the Wild West going wild.”
A family’s plea
Berry, who identified herself as Joseph’s girlfriend and the mother of his son, described the aftermath of his death in intensely personal terms.
Joseph was a truck driver who worked long hours to provide for his family, she said. Now she faces the prospect of raising their child without him.
Berry told commissioners she had returned to the scene of the shooting, desperate to feel close to Joseph.
“They opened up the next day and had a grand old time, a grand old party, while I went and laid on the ground outside because I was trying to smell my boyfriend’s blood on the ground,” she said.
She accused the establishment of failing to take responsibility for the suffering caused by the violence and criticized its decision to resume business after the shooting.
“My provider, my lover, my protector, my son’s father is no longer here,” she said.
Berry also said she and her son had been displaced from their home near the club because she could not bear the thought of her child seeing the establishment where his father died. Her remarks came during a hearing attended by several members of Joseph’s family, who urged commissioners to prevent another tragedy.
Joseph’s mother, Alina Constant Joseph, described her son as the oldest of four children, a graduate of Framingham State University and a hardworking father who had chosen to build his life in Massachusetts. Born in New York, Joseph moved to Massachusetts with his family and remained in the state after college, she said. He held a commercial driver’s license and worked additional shifts to support his family.
“I never knew that a parent would have to bury their son, the firstborn,” she told commissioners.
She said Joseph had been buried Oct. 24, less than two weeks after the shooting.
Another speaker, who attended the meeting online and identified herself as Kayla, said she was delivering remarks on behalf of her boyfriend, whose brother was injured during the incident that evening. Her statement urged commissioners to revoke the club’s licenses. Kayla told commissioners that no licensing decision could undo the loss of life but that they had the authority to take action to prevent further harm.
Police detail violations before shooting
The commission’s decision followed an extensive presentation by Needham, a member of the Worcester Police Department’s Alcohol Enforcement Unit, who reviewed surveillance footage from inside and outside Hurricane Betty’s. The footage documented numerous violations in the hour leading up to the shooting, according to Needham.
Hurricane Betty’s was licensed to accommodate 49 people, but Needham counted 62 patrons leaving after the incident. That figure did not include security personnel, bartenders, a disc jockey or dancers.
The sergeant also described customers entering the establishment without having their identification scanned or passing through a metal detector. Nine patrons entered after 1 a.m. without having their identification scanned, he said. Six entered without going through the metal detector or having their identification checked. Four others triggered the metal detector but were not subjected to additional searches.
Needham also reported that surveillance footage showed bartenders serving more than 20 alcoholic beverages between approximately 1:46 and 1:54 a.m., after the club’s required 1:45 a.m. cutoff for alcohol sales.
Other customers were seen leaving with alcoholic beverages, including plastic cups and an open bottle of beer.
Inside the establishment, a patron was observed carrying a bottle of Don Julio tequila. Police said the club was not authorized to provide bottle service.
The surveillance footage also showed security personnel locking the front door while patrons remained inside, a violation of city licensing rules that prohibit locking the main entrance until customers have departed.
That decision became particularly consequential when officers responding to the shooting encountered a locked door and had to pound on it before being admitted.
Violence escalated before police were called
According to Needham’s account, a verbal confrontation among patrons outside the club began around 2:01 a.m. and escalated into a physical fight. Security personnel attempted to separate those involved, but the confrontation continued along the sidewalk. At approximately 2:03 a.m., another assault occurred, with one individual appearing to strike another in the head with an object, according to the surveillance footage described by police.
Despite the escalating violence, no one from the establishment called police at that point, Needham said.
Around 2:06 a.m., people outside the club were seen running in apparent fear. The timing corresponded with gunfire detected by the city’s ShotSpotter system. A bartender appeared to make a telephone call at approximately 2:07 a.m., consistent with the timing of the report to police.
Officers arriving shortly afterward found Joseph suffering from multiple gunshot wounds in the roadway. He was taken to UMass Memorial Medical Center, where he died.
A second shooting victim was transported to another hospital location in a private vehicle. Needham said surveillance footage showed security employees observing the earlier confrontation but failing to alert police before the gunfire.
“At no time did any security outside attempt to notify personnel inside the club to call the police,” he told commissioners.
The city’s licensing rules require establishments to promptly notify police when disturbances result in physical injuries and to take reasonable steps to assist injured people.
Club proposes changes, but commission rejects them
Attorney Sean Smith, representing Hurricane Betty’s, acknowledged numerous violations and said the establishment had cooperated with police and prosecutors.
“There’s no disputing the tragedy of October 11,” Smith told commissioners. “Police should have been called earlier.”
Smith said security employees had attempted to intervene in the fighting but made poor decisions.
He proposed significant operational changes, including replacing the security operation, retraining management and potentially hiring an outside security company. Smith asked commissioners to consider those measures as an alternative to permanently revoking the club’s licenses. He also disputed whether the presence of a liquor bottle inside the establishment established that employees had provided unauthorized bottle service.
Commissioners were not persuaded.
The club had previously faced scrutiny following another fatal shooting in March 2022. A stabbing was also reported at the establishment in February 2025. Following the 2022 shooting, the license commission required security improvements before allowing the club to resume certain operations.
At an Oct. 22 hearing following Joseph’s death, commissioners temporarily restricted Hurricane Betty’s closing time to 8 p.m., rather than its usual 2 a.m., pending Thursday’s violation hearing.
Vigliotti cited the club’s history and the latest police findings in rejecting another opportunity for reform.
“Based upon that report, based upon previous history, based upon what’s happened, I can’t accept what you’re saying to me about reforming and changing and so forth,” he said.
Commissioners first voted unanimously to find that the licensing violations had occurred. They then voted unanimously to revoke both the alcohol and entertainment licenses.
Smith asked whether the commission would stay the decision to allow time for an appeal to the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission. The request was denied before Smith could even finish asking.
Commissioner Maritza Cruz offered condolences to Joseph’s family after the vote.
“My biggest condolences to the family for this tragedy,” Cruz said. “I am so deeply sorry because I know what it’s like to lose someone like that. I am a grandmother. I am a mother. I have a son, and it’s…I am just…I have no words to, you know, that can give you comfort. I’m deeply sorry.”
Criminal case continues
José I. Hiciano, 23, of Southbridge, was arrested in connection with the Oct. 11 incident and charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, according to earlier reporting by the Telegram & Gazette and the Boston Globe.
Prosecutors alleged that surveillance footage showed Hiciano striking Joseph in the head with what appeared to be a firearm before the fatal shooting. He was ordered held on $100,000 bail following an Oct. 15 court appearance, according to those reports. The charge does not establish that Hiciano fired the fatal shots.
The criminal investigation and the license commission’s proceedings are separate matters. The commission’s action concerned violations of the club’s operating requirements and its responsibilities as a licensed establishment. The revocation ends Hurricane Betty’s authority to sell alcohol and provide licensed entertainment unless the decision is overturned through the appeals process.
For Joseph’s family, the vote answered a demand they had brought before city officials, even as the consequences of his death remain.
Berry told commissioners that no decision could restore the life her family had lost. Her concern was that another child might one day face the same questions her son now asks.
“Shut them down,” she said.
