Tragedy for Globe family
Two cousins in Globe are fatally shot at a bar, weeks after the father of one dies after chronic illnesses. Meanwhile, the bar loses its liquor license.
State officials indefinitely suspended the liquor license of a Globe bar several days after a shooting there last Sunday left three people dead and another person seriously injured.
Globe Police Chief Dale Walters confirmed with The Arizona Republic on Friday evening that Jammerz bar had its liquor license suspended by the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control, but declined to comment further, referring any additional questions to the agency.
The department’s assistant director, Jeffery Trillo, did not respond for comment Friday evening, but according to the agency website, the Jammerz bar’s liquor license is listed as “inactive.”
The order was filed Wednesday by the agency.
Peter Schelstraete, an attorney for Jammerz bar owner Sara Hardy and who has worked liquor-licensing cases for 25 years, says the state’s suspension order was unusual and premature because the Globe Police Department hasn’t completed its investigation nor concluded any fault on the bar’s behalf.
“The owners are distraught emotionally,” Schelstraete said Friday. “There is nothing these owners could have done to prevent what had happened.”
As customers were mourning inside the bar Wednesday while planning memorial services for the victims, the state agency showed up to serve the notice of suspension, prompting the owners to close the bar down.
An order filed by the agency was provided to The Republic by Craig Miller, a former department official who is working with Schelstraete.
The order states that Jammerz “failed to satisfactorily maintain the capability, qualifications and reliability requirements of an applicant for a license,” and failed to take “reasonable steps to protect the safety of a customer,” on the evening of the shootings.
Cristi Licano, 44, a bartender at Jammerz, and Daniel Albo, 22, were pronounced dead at the scene, according to Globe police, while Ashley Sanchez, 22, and Charlene Peak were airlifted to a Phoenix hospital in critical condition. Sanchez died from her wounds Thursday, and Peak is in stable condition.
Sterling Randall Hunt, 22, has been arrested in connection with the shootings and is facing multiple charges.
Walters said Hunt had been in the bar with the others playing pool before the shootings. Afterward, three of the victims — Albo, Sanchez and Peak — went to a rear patio. Hunt made his way outside and shot at them, then went back inside, where he shot Licano and shot at a fifth person, Scott Mills, as he ran for cover, Walters said.
The state’s order, which does not name any of the victims, added that only one Jammerz employee was on duty on the night of the shooting. Miller said the employee was a male, and not Licano, who was at the bar on her free time.
Hunt was trying to order another drink from the employee, after already consuming multiple drinks that evening, according to the Department of Liquor Licenses and Control order. Hunt began acting disorderly when the employee asked Hunt to leave, the order says.
“The employee did not seek to secure transportation for the assailant or take any other steps beyond asking the assailant to leave the establishment,” the order states.
Hunt left and returned a few minutes later and opened fire on several customers, while “the sole employee on duty was outside of the licensed premises smoking marijuana, leaving no on-duty employee inside the establishment while it was open for business,” the order says.
Miller said that “there is not a statutory requirement to get someone a cab.”
“That community is so small, they don’t have an Uber, they don’t have a Lyft, and taxis are very rare,” he said.
Schelstraete filed an appeal to the suspension on Friday stating that the department imposed the suspension without notice or a hearing by the director, while failing to provide any findings or allegations of future public harm necessitating a suspension.
The appeal also says the order is not supported by the law and is “is unsupported by any competent evidence.”
Miller said, “No one can be in their building (bar) except for law enforcement, on-duty employees, and owners,” because of restrictions imposed by the order.
However, Schelstraete said the Arizona Attorney General’s Office “has agreed that they will open up the bar to serve non-alcoholic beverages just for the weekend, until continued conversations Monday.”