By Mike McCombs
The Island News
Those who have argued in the aftermath of the Oct. 12 mass shooting that Willie’s Bar and Grill on St. Helena Island should be shut down – a group which includes County Councilman York Glover and Baufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner – have emerged victorious, without much of a fight, it seems.
Business owner Willie Turral did not show up for a hearing Monday, Nov. 17, in Columbia.
The presiding judge contacted Turral and said, “He was unable to locate counsel and did not plan to appear and would accept whatever ruling I made,” according to according to WSAV-TV.
The South Carolina Department of Revenue, the S.C. Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and Beaufort County investigators, however, did take the stand.
The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office had sent a letter to SLED, resulting in an emergency revocation” of the alcohol and business licenses of Willie’s, located at 7 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
“This letter from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office deemed that Willie’s was a public nuisance and that there was a continued fear that the property, if there was continued to have an alcohol license, would be a threat to the public health and safety of the community,” said a SLED investigator who took the stand on Monday, according to WSAV-TV.
In Sheriff Tanner’s media conference on Friday, Nov. 14, Turral had pressed Tanner about why his business was being shut down, referring to the emergency license revocation, insisting it was wrong to hold him at fault for what happened Oct. 12.
Tanner did his best to shut Turral down.
He pointed out there had been more than 400 service calls to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office for that location in the past 10 years, including shots fired calls. He said all of this information was being passed along for Monday’s hearing.
Turral has owned the business since 2023.
“Look, the bottom line is we’re gonna put you out of business,” Tanner said during the press conference. “If that’s what you’re looking for me to say, that’s exactly what our efforts are. Not only put you out of business as far as a location that can serve beer wine and liquor, but the address itself is never going to have, as far as I’m concerned, is never going to have a beer wine and liquor license.”
According to WSAV-TV, investigators discovered Turral had no Local Option Permit (LOP) liquor license allowing him to sell liquor on Sundays, and more specifically after midnight. They say they have evidence to show liquor was being sold at the time of the shooting.
“Obviously there’s a problem here and it needs to be addressed,” a South Carolina Department of Revenue attorney said. “And the only way that we can ensure that we don’t have a repeat incident like this is to at least eliminate something that may be bringing these large cracks, which of course, is the alcohol.”
The licenses for Willie’s Bar and Grill will remain suspended until the judge decides otherwise, according to WSAV-TV.
Mike McCombs is the Editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.
