Kansas bar where gunfire wounded 9 last month closes permanently

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas bar where nine people were wounded by gunfire last month has permanently closed.

An attorney for City Nightz told the Wichita Eagle that the club owner felt he had no choice but to close because of all the negative publicity and because police blaming the bar for the shooting.

“The city has basically made it so burdensome to stay open, they can’t stay open,” attorney Charley O’Hara said. “He feels like he was singled out and blamed for a lot of things that happen all over the city and they don’t blame other people.”

The city suspended City Nightz’s liquor license for 30 days after the shooting, and the year-old club never reopened.

Nine people were shot July 2 and two others trampled in the chaos afterward. No one died. Police have said that the seven men and two women who were shot ranged in age from 22 to 34.

Several people have been arrested. A St. Louis-area man was arrested July 3, but prosecutors later determined he fired his gun to defend himself after shots were fired by others.

Wichita is a city of nearly 400,000 people, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City, Missouri.