Club got new alcohol permits because of "glitch," ABC Commission says

Authorities were called to the scene at about 1:54 a.m. last Saturday to deal with a reported fight and shooting. There were no injuries, and police “were able to identify the one who was doing the shooting,” a teen who will face charges in juvenile court, Lane said.

Lane said the incident happened in the Roxie’s parking lot. He also said police “did get some cooperation from the surrounding community as far as identifying the juvenile,” and always “appreciate the help of the public in these situations.”

State ABC Commission records as of early Wednesday afternoon were showing that Roxie’s had temporary malt-beverage and mixed-beverage permits that were good through March 21.

But by the end of the working day, commission spokesman Jeff Strickland was saying the permits had been “incorrectly extended” because of “a computer glitch in the ABC Commission’s system.” As of Friday, the commissioner’s database was reporting they had been withdrawn.

The surprise in all of that is that ABC officials on Sept. 30 had announced that prior shootings had led them to decide that giving Roxie’s permanent alcohol permits “would be detrimental to the neighborhood.”

Their notice cited incidents on Sept. 25 that injured two men and on Jan. 30 of last year that injured two juveniles.

They thus rejected a permit application that had been pending since early 2020, and pulled the temporary permits that had allowed it to operate up to that point.

Roxie’s owner has appealed the decision, but Strickland’s comments on Wednesday didn’t indicate that the appeal had anything to do with the issuance of a new set of temporary permits on Dec. 5.

“To clarify, the permits have been and will remain canceled until the applicant’s appeal, which is currently pending at the [N.C.] Office of Administrative Hearings, has been resolved,” he said.