A South Shore gay bar will no longer admit patrons younger than 30, will play less “aggressive” music and stop serving alcohol earlier after a hit-and-run outside the bar earlier this month that killed three people.
Jeffery Pub owner Jamal Junior shared the changes Thursday night during a community meeting at the club, 7041 S. Jeffery Blvd.
“There was some tension, for sure,” said Keith Green, executive director of the Chicago Black Gay Men’s Caucus, a nonprofit organization. “The challenge is there are already a limited number of spaces for younger people to gather and hang out. ... It actually exacerbates the problem of young people not having a place to go.”
Green said he was one of about 60 people who attended the meeting Thursday. Junior declined to talk to a Chicago Sun-Times reporter on Friday. An Aug. 18 posting on the pub’s Facebook page says, “30 & Older, No ID, No entry.”
Block Club Chicago, which first reported the changes, said Jeffrey Pub will close at 3 a.m. instead of 5 a.m. Saturdays and 4 a.m. other days.
The hit-and-run happened in the early hours of Aug. 14 after an argument in the bar spilled outside, police have said. As the arguing continued, a silver sedan raced down the 7000 block of South Jeffery and drove straight into the people gathered outside.
Three people were hurled into the air and a fourth was knocked to the curb as bystanders screamed, according to video from the scene. Donald Huey, 25, Jaylen Ausley, 23, and Devonta Vivetter, 27, died; a fourth man was hospitalized in serious condition.
Tavis Dunbar, 34, has been charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bail.
The police have said they don’t have a clear motive in the case.
