As Southwest’s H2O night club enters its second week of a city-imposed shutdown after a weekend shooting left one man dead outside the club in late May, questions remain as to what happened and why the club remains shuttered.

In a hearing before the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Board last Thursday, city officials forcefully argued that the club remained a threat and revealed that Rashod Holmes, the gunman accused of killing Nelson Able outside the club in the wee hours of May 27, had bypassed club security and entered the establishment with the gun he eventually turned on Able. After being called an “absolute atrocity” and a “threat to the citizens of the District,” the board voted to keep the club closed until this Wednesday, pending further information into what happened that night.

Today the City Paper reports that the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington sent a letter to D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier on May 28, arguing against the continued shutdown of H20. They wrote:

We are extremely concerned by the summary suspension of the alcoholic beverage license of one of our members, H2O, in the wake of the killing outside of the premises on Sunday morning.

Although our information comes only from published reports and we may not have all of the facts provided to you by police investigators, it seems that this tragic killing was not in any way the fault of the establishment. The fact that the incident occurred does not necessarily mean that there is “an additional imminent danger to the health and welfare of the public” by not closing the establishment.

Based on newspaper accounts, it appears that this horrible incident occurred between two criminals, one of whom kept an illegal firearm in his car, but never even brought it into the establishment. We are at a loss to understand how a restaurant can or should be held accountable for acts of violence perpetrated by those with illegal handguns outside its premises.

Obviously, the news that a gun might have been carried into the club that night has muddied the club’s argument that it did nothing wrong — especially if Holmes did bypass security as he claims. Still, city officials have yet to highlight exactly how the club may have violated provisions of the law or its own license, given that both sides seem to agree that both men were removed from the club and the shooting happened a block away. Similarly, police have been less than forthcoming in detailing whether or not the club has ever been a hot-spot for trouble (initial reports indicated it had not; later reports seemed to say it has). Finally, city officials should have to respond to a question we’ve asked in the past — had this happened elsewhere, say a restaurant or outside a stadium, would the response have been the same?

We’re hoping that future hearings and the investigation can clear up what happened, who was in the wrong and what steps can be taken in the future to prevent such recurring acts of violence.