MACON, Ga. — The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office has moved to suspend the alcohol license of a downtown Macon bar days after a shooting nearby left two people dead.
According to a news release, The Thirsty Turtle was served with an alcohol license revocation letter on behalf of Sheriff David Davis.
The suspension is effective immediately. The release also says the sheriff’s office and Macon-Bibb commission will be conducting a review of the business.
What we know about the double fatal downtown Macon shooting
Deputies say they got a call of shots fired on Cherry Street at 12:41 a.m. Saturday.
Sheriff David Davis says that a fight began in the vicinity of the Thirsty Turtle before moving down the street toward the corner of Cherry and MLK Boulevard.
"We had a fight inside. We pushed them outside and apparently someone was waiting on the corner of Cherry Street with a gun already," said Matt Obelgoner, the general manager of The Thirsty Turtle. "As the fight from the club came outside, it kind of intertwined with what was going on outside."
Darrin Ford, the owner of A Brooke Haven Lounge, says he saw people rushing from the Thirsty Turtle so he asked his patrons to get inside.
At least four people were injured in the shooting -- two fatally. 20-year-old Donovan Cason was pronounced dead at the scene and 22-year-old Kabryan Johnson died in the emergency room at the hospital.
It was the second major shooting on that block of downtown in less than a year.
So far, no arrests have been announced in connection with the case.
Black Friday shooting
On the night of November 27, the Bibb County Sheriff's Office says someone drove down Cherry Street after a fight and started shooting at people standing outside of the Thirsty Turtle.
The sheriff's office says the shooter continued firing at people at the intersection of Cherry and Third Street, injuring a total of six people.
Emergency workers took three gunshot victims to the hospital. The sheriff's office says three others were taken in personal vehicles along with two men who had been stabbed at the bar.
22-year-old Jhacaya Mann later died, and two people were later arrested in connection with the shooting.
That led to the Thirsty Turtle's alcohol license being suspended for 90 days.
Thirsty Turtle's past alcohol license suspension
In December, 13WMAZ obtained a preliminary report Sheriff Davis wrote to then Mayor Robert Reichert.
In the report, he explained why he decided to suspend the license, including: the shooting happened “at or within 100 yards of the establishment," that Thirsty Turtle employees were involved in the incident, one of the suspects (Durand Faulk) was in the bar before the shooting, and video could not be retrieved from the security camera system.
That order expired on Feb. 25 and physical copies of the permits were returned to the bar on March 1.
RELATED STORIES