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Beech Grove mayor calls for closure of sports bar after shooting

(WISH Photo)

BEECH GROVE, Ind. (WISH) — Beech Grove Mayor Dennis Buckley is calling for a bar on Main Street to be closed.

It comes just hours after an early morning shooting injured two men.

“We’ve very diligent since 2013 to rebuild Main Street and it’s full, and when violence finds us, it always hurts us,” said Buckley.

“We need help and we need it bad,” said Joe Wolfla, the owner of Good Morning Publishing.

According to the Beech Grove Police Department, the shooting occurred around 3 a.m. at the Silver Bullet Sports Bar and Grill parking lot. Police say they found two men shot. They were taken to a hospital.

Investigators believe an argument started inside the bar and continued outside.

“It’s just very disturbing, and the fact that this happened in the middle of the night and there’s people asleep in their homes within 50 feet of where this happened,” said Buckley “How can any society accept that?”

Mayor Buckley says he spoke with one of the owners and their attorney about the situation.

“I recommended to him that he close this bar, and they don’t have to do that, but if they aren’t willing to do that, then beginning today, I will start the process to do it for him,” said Buckley

“We’ve had multiple incidents of shootings at the bars in Beech Grove. We’ve met with them, and the issue is that we can’t control what is going on, then we have to look at extreme measures to make sure that we don’t have what occurred last night happen,” said Michael Maurice, police chief of the Beech Grove Police Department.

“You can’t shake everybody down when they come in and see what they’ve got on them. You shouldn’t be able to go in a bar with a gun. You shouldn’t be able to have drugs on you. I don’t know whether there were drugs or not, but you can’t shake them down,” said Wolfla.

The Beech Grove Police Department is asking anyone with any information regarding the shooting to come forward.