Bar shuts doors, owner cites ‘personal reasons’
While owner Justin Kershner was able to get the nearly $20,000 he needed to pay in back taxes to keep his bar open, The Library will be closed indefinitely for “personal reasons,” he said Friday night.
Kershner got a call from the South Carolina Department of Revenue on Thursday and learned he needed to pay a five-figure tax bill by 2 p.m. Friday or lose his license to sell beer, wine and liquor at The Library, a Five Points bar.
Less than 24 hours before, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said The Library was the source of Five Points’ gang problem. Deputies had conducted multiple undercover operations in the bar without knowledge or consent of Kershner and his wife, who own The Library. Those operations revealed that members of a national gang frequented the bar, Lott said. Officers found that those members were “catered to” and frequently wore gang colors inside, the sheriff said at a Wednesday press conference.
Kershner and his wife, Anne, shot back at the accusations, calling them “unfair” and “racist” and saying police began targeting The Library after its clientele became largely African-American.