Shoot-up bar is shut in Queens
THERE’S NOTHING zen about this bar.
The State Liquor Authority has suspended the booze license of Zen Lounge, a Queens hotspot where three people were shot earlier this month — and where the bar’s owner did everything she could to muck up an investigation into the gunplay, authorities said.
A dozen shots were fired during a fight outside the bar (photo below) on 101st Ave. near 118th St. in Richmond Hill on March 12, wounding three people.
The three victims, which included a 30-year-old man, a 26-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man, all suffered minor injuries.
But when police asked Zen Lounge’s owner to provide surveillance video from the night of the shooting, she initially refused, officials said.
When she finally agreed to hand over the footage, she had already altered it, rendering it useless, according to the authority.
Cops later arrested Travis LaRoc, 32, for the 3:40 a.m. shooting, charging him with attempted murder, assault and weapons possession.
LaRoc is believed to be linked to a promoter who was hosting an event at the bar on the night of the shooting, authorities said.
The lounge’s liquor license prevented it from promoting events at her bar, but the business seemed to flout that rule on its website and social media, with ads for events like Champagne Saturdays and Addiction Sundays.
As recently as March 23, they held a promoted Seductive Fridays party, according to the lounge’s website.
After an incident on Aug. 19 in which a man was slashed outside the bar with a glass bottle, the Liquor Authority and the NYPD did a surprise inspection and hit the owner with 41 violations.
“The licensee has not only ignored the conditions imposed upon her license and failed to adequately supervise her premises, but she has also refused to cooperate with the police on multiple occasions,” authority Counsel Christopher Riano said in a statement.
A Zen staffer declined to comment.