Railhouse surrenders ABC license
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on August 3, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Owners of Railhouse Sports Bar and Grille on the 100 block of North Center Street have temporarily closed their doors following the murder that happened Sunday morning near the business as a sign of respect to the family and friends of the victim, Ryan Morgan.
Railhouse Sports Bar and Grille, located at 108 N. Center St., voluntarily surrendered its ABC permits to North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement agents on Monday.
Maj. Anthony Carmon, head of the Goldsboro Police Department's Criminal Investigations Division, said it is unclear why the establishment surrendered its alcohol permits.
"I have no indication on why they surrendered their permits, or if the closing is temporary or permanent," Carmon said.
Ryan Apollo Morgan, 32, a senior airman stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, was shot and killed on the 100 block of North Center Street around 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning.
Carmon said Morgan had gone to Railhouse Sports Bar and Grille the night he was fatally shot, but declined to say when he was there or when he left the establishment.
"We know, but I'm not going to release that," Carmon said.
Ronnie Sasser, part owner of Railhouse Sports Bar and Grille, said the establishment voluntarily surrendered its permits because they felt like it was the right thing to do in the wake of the shooting.
"First and foremost, our hearts and prayers go out to the victim's family," Sasser said. "We hate it. At the Railhouse, we hate it. The (ABC) permits were in my partner's name (Dee Ismail), and she felt like with the situation like it was, until things got settled and cleared up, that it was the right thing to do."
Sasser said his partner, Dee Ismail, made the call to voluntarily surrender the ABC permits since the permits were in her name.
"We don't want to see any problems," Sasser said. "We have a lot of patrons that go there and socialize and meet their friends and have a good time and leave."
Sasser said Railhouse Sports Bar and Grille closes at 2 a.m. on weekends, and that he did not know what happened after the establishment closed for the night.
"This incident was half a block away from Railhouse at 2:30 a.m., and we close at 2 a.m. Our lights are on and we close at 2 a.m.," Sasser said. "We don't know what happened after we closed. When the customers leave, we don't follow everybody to their car. Our staff was cleaning up and getting ready for the next opening day. The reason we gave up the permits is because my partner felt like it was the right thing to do, not because we felt like we had done anything wrong, because we haven't."
Carmon said that Railhouse Sports Bar and Grille was not being investigated in the incident.
Carmon said he did not know whether or not employees of Railhouse Sports Bar and Grille had been interviewed by authorities so far.
"As a matter of any investigation, you interview as many people as possible that may have direct or indirect knowledge of the incident being investigated," Carmon said.
Carmon confirmed that there are cameras on Center Street in downtown Goldsboro, and that authorities has reviewed footage of Center Street, but declined to say whether or not the footage that had been reviewed was of Sunday morning's incident.
"I'm not prepared to go into that yet," Carmon said.
Sasser said he hopes authorities can catch whoever is responsible for the incident.
"This is terrible. We feel real bad about it, and she (Ismail) decided to take a step back and let this thing get settled," Sasser said. "Hopefully they'll catch this guy and we'll go from here."
Sasser said he is unsure if Railhouse Sports Bar and Grille will reopen in the future.
"We just don't know yet," Sasser said. "We're going to sit down and talk about it."