A Dane County judge ordered a south side bar to remain closed indefinitely after a Madison attorney filed a restraining order against the bar following a shooting last weekend.

While attorney Jenifer Zilavy filed the restraining order on Friday right after the shooting near R’ Place, Dane County Judge David Flanagan said he had other reasons he extended the order to keep the bar closed temporarily.

Flanagan said at the end of the hearing that the Madison Police Department did not take reasonable action to prevent the shootings and other violent incidents that have occurred near R’ Place’s premises in the last 11 months, but he did say R’ Place has created a public nuisance.

Pending further action of the court, Flanagan said, the bar will remain closed.

“There is an enormous public safety component here,” Flanagan said.

During the hearing, some Madison residents who live on the south side close to the bar acted as witnesses to the city.

Resident Maria Brown said her front door and porch face the back of the bar, and she had called 911 in the past because it seemed like patrons were fighting.

R’ Place owner Rick Flowers said in the hearing he has worked with neighbors and other individuals on noise complaints and he has a right to receive protection from MPD.

Cpt. Joe Balles said he has worked closely with R’ Place since the shooting that occurred near the bar’s premises last October and had worked with the bar to make it safer.

Flanagan said he was less concerned with why the shootings occurred and more concerned with the fact that there have been shootings.

Flowers represented himself during the hearing. He said in an interview with The Badger Herald he could not afford a lawyer.

Flowers said he’s going to appeal the decision. He has proudly declared his bar one of the only “Afrocentric” venues in the city, and Flanagan acknowledged the bar’s “unique spot in culture” during the hearing.

“I have a right to defend my bar. The city doesn’t want me to defend my bar. They want me to hire a lawyer,” Flowers said in an interview.

Last Friday, three people were injured in what MPD spokesperson Joel DeSpain called an “ambush-style shooting” on the 1800 block of S. Park Street, and the victims had just left the bar before the shooting took place.

Flowers said one of the victims was Eugene Lee, who had worked for R’ Place in the past and was hired back to work as a janitor the night of the shooting.

DeSpain said he could not release or verify the names of the victims. There are currently no suspects in custody.

On Wednesday, R’ Place’s liquor license is scheduled to go before the city’s Alcohol License Review Committee. The ruling did not change the bar’s status on the committee, said Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, a member of ALRC.

“There could be overlapping prohibitions [on R’ Place],” he said.

-Deputy News Editor Katherine Krueger and News Reporter George LeVines contributed to this report.