Members of the State Patrol’s Ohio Investigative Unit visited the business at 4830 Airway Road last Saturday, said Riverside police Maj. Matt Sturgeon. The Ohio Investigative Unit is responsible for enforcing Ohio’s alcohol, tobacco and food stamp fraud laws.
WATCH: Video shows gun blasts outside EJ’s Lounge in Riverside
The charges issued to EJ’s are considered administrative, not criminal, and they go against the business’s liquor license. They could lead to a revocation of a liquor license.
The citations include the business not displaying their liquor permit, improper conduct for drug use and giving away alcohol in conjunction with the operation of the business.
Sturgeon said Riverside police have had EJ’s on their radar since the volume and type of calls escalated in recent weeks.
On Jan. 17, there was a shootout involving high-powered weapons in the parking lot of the bar. Surveillance video from that night shows people in one vehicle leaving the parking lot and firing at other people and vehicles that were still in the lot.
“This is not just two guys pushing each other in the bar over a spilled drink, this is firing a high-caliber weapon,” Sturgeon said.
Police suspect the incident led to groups of people chasing each other and firing more shots in Dayton early the next morning.
“I’m coming up Airway Road and I’m shaking all over,” a person said in a 911 call from the night of the gunfire. “I looked behind me and I could see like, gunshots, it was right behind me and I saw a bunch of orange flashes, and it sounded like someone was beating my car.”
MORE: Car from Dayton gunfire exchange, pursuit possibly involved in Riverside shots fired
Riverside police discovered three vehicles hit by bullets. One car had blood inside, although no one reported being shot during the incident.
Sturgeon said the incident is likely gang-related.
No arrests have been made so far and no one has been especially cooperative with the investigation, said Riverside Maj. Adam Colon.
Colon also said that some of the people involved in this shooting were involved in other shootings in Dayton.
Sturgeon, who said he has worked with the Riverside police department for more than 20 years, said that the building EJ’s is in has been several different bars in the past, but he has never seen another business in there that compares to the violent activity at EJ’s.
The owners of the bar have not been cooperative in the past, Sturgeon said, but have become more cooperative in recent weeks.
“We’re trying to make it as safe as we can at the moment, with extra patrols and manpower, but the long-term solution would be to challenge their liquor license,” Sturgeon said.
State officials will schedule hearings in the next few months on the potential alcohol violations. The results of those hearings will determine whether EJ’s stays open.
“We’re not going to stop until something changes,” Sturgeon said. “We want them to clean up or get out.”
Calls and Facebook messages to EJ’s Lounge were not answered.
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