It's 3 p.m. at Shirley's Honey Hole, a neighborhood bar in East Baltimore, and behind a locked door about 10 men - mostly retirees, all in their 60s and 70s - are sipping Budweisers, Coronas and mixed drinks in red plastic cups, a bottle of fruit juice standing by for refills.
Behind the bar are family pictures, white Christmas lights - and a letter from the Baltimore Police Department notifying 60-year-old owner Shirley Barner of the department's intention to shut the business down.
Police stipulated three incidents from June, including a shooting on the street outside that left five people injured and one dead, and drugs recovered from people inside and outside the bar.
On Friday, Barner's bar became the latest city business that police have identified in recent months as a public nuisance, initiating proceedings to padlock the business until the owners can come up with a safety plan deemed suitable by Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III.
And like the business owners before her, Barner, an East Baltimore bar owner for 30 years, says police are blaming her for something over which she has no control.
"Things happen all over the city; drugs [are] everywhere," she says. "I try to abide by what they ask me to do, but there's just so much I can do. I can't search people. It's not my job."
The shooting occurred June 20, after two men opened fire on a group of six men standing outside the bar in the 2300 block of E. Oliver St., a desolate stretch in the Broadway East community. Edward Patterson, 39, was killed.
About three weeks before that, police arrested five men at the bar who they believed were involved in drug dealing on the premises.
"Six people shot in a bar, that's not exactly a common occurrence," said Anthony Guglielmi, the Police Department's chief spokesman. "Another important part is that management has not made an effort to curtail the violence. There's been no proactive safety strategies or plans, so this is what this hearing is going to determine."
'We're older guys'
Barner says her patrons are mostly retirees. The business features a walk-up window where people can buy package goods, but the bar itself is behind a locked door that requires Barner to buzz people in. She said that's to keep "hoodlums" out.
"You can see us - we're older guys," said Pete Modlin, 76, a retired steel worker. "Ain't nobody carrying on in here."
