Happy Place Sports Bar closes after man dies in 3rd shooting in 4 months

Days after a 24-year-old man was killed there in at least the third shooting of the past four months, Happy Place Sports Bar in south Orange County is closed for business.

Orange County spokeswoman Doreen Overstreet said the bar, at 7400 Southland Blvd., has been evicted by the property’s owner. The county was not directly involved in that process, she said.

The bar closed and its signage was removed Tuesday.

The Orange County Sheriff ’s Office had been building a case to bring Happy Place before the county’s Nuisance Abatement Board, but that won’t be necessary with the bar closing, Overstreet said.

The bar, in a strip mall near U.S. Highway 441, had been the subject of numerous calls to the Sheriff’s Office in recent months.

Deputies were called to the bar about 5:45 a.m. Monday, arriving to find Adrian Manrique Peralta, who had been shot. He was later pronounced dead. No one had been arrested in the shooting.

It was the latest of several violent incidents at Happy Place.

On Sept. 10, a 55-year-old man survived being shot outside the bar. Authorities have said the man was an innocent bystander to a conflict between a security guard and another person.

In July, 20-year-old Edgar Rivera was killed at the bar during a fight that also left a security guard and three other men shot.