By Gus G. Sentementes and Mary Gail Hare , Sun reporters|July 15, 2008
The party at a fire hall in Joppa was advertised in splashy colors on the MySpace Web page, and dozens of people showed up for an event that promised a disc jockey, live music and a bar.
But authorities said the Joppa-Magnolia Fire Company's hall had been originally booked by a man who disclosed only that he wanted throw his brother a birthday party - not a bash dubbed "Keeping It Live," where attendees were charged a cover fee.
Shortly before midnight Sunday, Tariq S. Alston, a 22-year-old Edgewood man, was shot at the event and later died at an area hospital.
The slaying was Harford County's second of the year, and was also the second time this month that gunfire erupted at a Baltimore-area private hall that had apparently been rented by party promoters under false pretenses.
On July 4, a party marketed on MySpace as "Extreme Intoxication 3" was held at the AFSCME union hall in Southwest Baltimore. For $20, attendees could buy an "all you can drink" ticket. "WE WON'T STOP THE PARTY UNTIL EVERYONE HAS LEFT THE BUILDING," according to the Internet advertisement.
In the early morning hours of July 5, two Baltimore police officers shot three men who they said were firing guns into the air from a car parked outside the hall in the 1400 block of Bush St., and refused orders to drop the weapons. Two men were killed.
Glen Middleton, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees' Council 67, said the union did not knowingly rent the hall to the people who organized the party. Police said the people who rented the union hall apparently had let other party promoters use it.
Douglas Paige, a spokesman for the Baltimore Board of Liquor License Commissioners, said the union hall does not have a liquor license, nor was a one-day permit requested for the July 4 event. He said one-day liquor licenses can only be issued to nonprofit organizations.
"Whatever event was being held there that particular weekend was not licensed," Paige said.
The fire hall in Joppa has a license to serve beer and wine, and fulfilled its license requirements for alcohol to be served at the building on Sunday, according to the county's liquor board.
Board administrators said there were some problems last year with promoters trying to pass themselves off as nonprofits and seeking a one-day license. But so far this year, there have been no such incidents, liquor board officials said.
