The Upsidedown Plaza is a bar in Southside Birmingham where Zakk Earle was shot by two would-be patrons who were later arrested near Sloss Furnace after they crashed their car. Photo by Giani MartinMark Linn - Copy Editorcopy@insideuab.com
Zakk Earle, 23, works at the Upsidedown Plaza, a bar located in the basement of Pickwick Plaza in Five Points. On Oct. 12, Earle was shot following a confrontation with two would-be patrons who refused to leave.
According to Earle, a girl who turned out to be underage tried entering the Plaza in the early morning hours on Wednesday, Oct. 12. After she and her companion refused to leave, a short physical confrontation follow that ended when the girl shot Earle once in the stomach.
“I was shocked. It’s one of those cliché things where you think it will never happen to anyone you know,” said Carter Thornton, a friend of Earle and a UAB senior. “It made me physically ill when I was told exactly what happened by someone who was there.”
Earle was rushed to UAB Hospital and was taken into surgery, according to al.com. The couple fled the scene and crashed their vehicle into a downtown Birmingham bridge near Sloss Furnace, and were captured after a short foot chase.
“Zakk was just doing his job,” said Amie Mejia, a friend of Earle. “He upheld the law and standard all bars and bartenders are held to, and it could have happened to any of us in the service industry.”
Since the shooting, friends and associates of Earle have started raising money to help cover his expenses as he recovers and is out of work.
“Zakk is a fighter,” Thornton said. “The strength of this community and all of the support that Birmingham, especially the music scene, has shown for him is so amazing.”
Since Earle doesn’t have medical insurance, Mejia and other friends have set up a GoFundMe page that aims to raise $15,000 to help cover medical expenses. The page raised $600 within the first couple of hours and as of Oct. 22 it has raised $8,073.
“I’ve never done a GoFundMe or fund-raising campaign before, but I knew that Zakk works hard like all of us,” Mejia said. “Being in the service industry myself, knowing he wouldn’t be able to go to work and having serious medical bills, it was my only solution to help.”
Mejia said that Earle was told about the fundraising effort while he was still recovering in the hospital and that he was taken aback by how much support he received so quickly.
“It really made me feel like part of Birmingham for sure.” Earle said. “I guess it felt really good to know that the community really cares and that we can come together over something like this.”
To further help with expenses, the United States Bartenders Guild will be hosting a Halloween party on Oct. 30, with proceeds going to Earle. The party will start at 8 p.m. at the Spring Street Firehouse and will feature local folk band Renegades of Folk and Greco, an Athens, Ga. based rock band.
“All I want people to know is that I appreciate them, I really do,” Earle said. “I appreciate everything that anybody has done for me, people that don’t even know me, you know what I mean? I hear every day of something else that’s going on or something else somebody has done. From the bottom of my heart, I do appreciate it and it means the world to me.”
