Lacking identification, 17-year-old Taleisha Ford promised a security guard she was 18 and paid an extra $5 to get into the Smarta Restaurant Sports Bar Club — $5 that cost the Northeast girl her life, family members said Thursday.

As police searched for the man who fired the gunshots that killed Ford early Saturday inside the club, located at 1919 Ninth St. Northwest, family members, local leaders and activists gathered for a standing-room-only hearing at the John A. Wilson building Thursday to find a way to prevent similar deaths.

Council Member Jim Graham, D-Ward 1, has proposed legislation to keep minors from entering nightclubs where alcohol is served.

Ford’s adopted sister, Ashley Cunningham, 18, said the girls paid a $15 cover charge and were dancing on the club’s second floor when they heard a commotion and then a gunshot near the upstairs entrance.

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“I looked and I saw her on the floor,” Cunningham said. Neither of the girls was drinking alcohol, but underage patrons were paying a bartender an extra $10 to serve them, Cunningham and family members said.

Club owner, Smart Azikam, 44, turned in his license to serve alcohol Monday. Graham said Azikam, who did not attend Thursday’s hearing, told him he had rented the club to a band for the evening’s performance.

“He said the band was responsible for the bouncers — all he got was [money from] the bar,” Graham said, later referring to Azikam as “a bad licensee.”

Graham also said he was concerned about the time it took emergency personnel to respond to the incident.

Family members and Attorney General Linda Singer testified on behalf of banning all minors from nightclubs where alcohol is served.

Singer said the Alcohol Beverage Control Board is looking at perhaps devising a “mixed-use” license for other establishments where alcohol is not the entertainment centerpiece.

She also suggested adding security and safety training to the requirements necessary to gain some types of alcohol licenses.

cmabeus@dcexaminer.com