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Downtown Macon bar gets alcohol license back after 90-day suspension

Sheriff David Davis suspended the Thirsty Turtle's license after the Black Friday mass shooting on Cherry Street that left 6 injured and one dead

MACON, Ga. — A Macon club may be opening as soon as Thursday or Friday night after the Bibb County Sheriff's Office suspended its liquor license in November. 

Sheriff David Davis says he suspended the Thirsty Turtle's license in response to the Black Friday mass shooting on Cherry Street that left at least six people injured and one woman dead.

Maj. Brad Wolfe delivered the physical permits back to the bar owners on Monday afternoon. The bar's license was suspended for a total of 90 days with that order expiring on Feb. 25 after the commission didn't take additional action.

13WMAZ obtained a preliminary report Sheriff Davis wrote to then Mayor Robert Reichert in December. 

In the report, he explained why he decided to suspend the license, including: the shooting happened “at or within 100 yards of the establishment," that Thirsty Turtle employees were involved in the incident, one of the suspects (Durand Faulk) was in the bar before the shooting, and video could not be retrieved from the security camera system.

Thirsty Turtle general manager Matthew Obelgoner says they’ve been trying to get the the physical permits returned since the order expired last week so they could open back up.

Those permits were not returned until Monday after 13WMAZ asked the sheriff's office why the physical permits weren't delivered back to bar owners.

Maj. Wolfe said it was because he couldn’t get in contact with the Obelgoners, however the Obelgoners said the sheriff’s office had been able to contact them before.

Matthew Obelgoner says the business wants to move forward.

“I want to open up, get people back to work, and the sheriff leaves me alone. I just hope I can keep this business rolling, get back to my livelihood, and I hope I can get back to work,” he said.

This is a developing story and there will be more on 13WMAZ News at 11.

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