Authorities in Erie took a closer look at a State Street restaurant following two shootings over a week in late April.
A woman was wounded in one of the shootings, and two men are facing attempted homicide and other charges in the incidents.
City officials determined that the restaurant, Super Chicken Lounge, was also operating as a bottle club and dance club at 1015 State Street, in violation of city zoning rules.
Super Chicken Lounge is now closed.
City officials shuttered the space late last week, posting it as uninhabitable and unlawful for anyone to use or occupy it because of the zoning violation.
Andy Zimmerman, Erie’s manager of code enforcement, said the violation was revealed after officials received information that alcohol was being served in the building and officials looked into the matter.
According to city officials, Super Chicken Lounge was licensed as an eating and drinking establishment. But bottle clubs and dance clubs are considered special exceptions under zoning rules and must have the approval of the city’s Zoning Hearing Board, which the operators did not have, officials said.
The operators of Super Chicken were leasing the space from the building’s owner, Zimmerman said Monday.
Representatives of Super Chicken could not be reached for comment Monday at two phone numbers associated with the business.
Shootings attract attention
Erie police said last week that they and the city’s nuisance bar task force planned to take a closer look at the activities at Super Chicken following the two shootings.
The first happened shortly after 2 a.m. on April 23. Erie police reported after the incident a fight had reportedly broken out between some females when a 21-year-old woman who intervened was shot in the leg.
Two days after the shooting, city police detectives charged 30-year-old Tyler D. Magee with two counts of attempted homicide and other offenses in the incident. Magee, whose last known addresses were in Erie, remained at large Monday.
According to information in Magee’s criminal complaint, an Erie police officer who was on patrol heard a gunshot and saw two women running across State Street. One of the women was limping and got into a vehicle that took her to UPMC Hamot, according to investigators.
Police learned from a witness that she was involved in a fight with another female inside and outside of Super Chicken. The witness told police that as she chased after the other female and was running toward the southwest corner of 10th and State streets, she was pursued by Magee, who had a firearm, detectives wrote in the complaint.
The witness said she heard a gunshot and learned that the victim had been shot, according to police.
Detectives wrote in the complaint that they obtained surveillance video from the area that captured the shooting, and police identified Magee as the suspect from the video.
The second shooting, which did not injure anyone, was reported shortly before 1:30 a.m. on April 30.
Erie police accuse Yaphet M. Ettison, 50, of assaulting a man and firing two gunshots during a confrontation inside the establishment. The man who was assaulted went to the hospital for treatment of injuries, according to information in Ettison’s criminal complaint.
Erie police charged Ettison with offenses, including three counts of attempted homicide. He is scheduled to appear in court for his preliminary hearing on June 23, according to his online court docket sheet.
Similar State Street business shuttered following homicide
Another State Street business that officials said was operating as a bottle club was shut down by the city four years ago, days after a man was fatally stabbed and two others were wounded during a fight there in April 2019.
The Culture, at 1023 State St., had a certificate of occupancy issued for a cyber cafe. It was closed by the city after officials determine that it was operating as a bottle club and did not have a new certificate of occupancy.
Erie police said after the closing that The Culture would not be able to obtain a certificate of occupancy to reopen as a bottle club because the location sat within 500 feet of a church. According to Erie’s zoning ordinance, a bottle club must be at least 1,000 feet from the nearest property line of any residential district, church, school, other institution of learning or education, hospital, library, park or playground.
Licensed bars are permitted in that area, but The Culture did not have a liquor license, authorities reported.
The Culture never reopened.
The Culture became the focus of the city’s nuisance bar task force following a series of incidents at and around the establishment, including the fatal stabbing of James Allen Jr., 34, on April 27, 2019. No one has ever been charged in the killing.