SoMa nightclub under police scrutiny after fatal shootings

The EndUp night club on Sixth Street has been connected to two fatal shootings since June, officials said. San Francisco police said the club’s response to the violence may warrant a revocation of its liquor license. less The EndUp night club on Sixth Street has been connected to two fatal shootings since June, officials said. San Francisco police said the club’s response to the violence may warrant a revocation of its liquor ... more Photo: MLS / / Photo: MLS / / Image 1 of / 27 Caption Close SoMa nightclub under police scrutiny after fatal shootings 1 / 27 Back to Gallery

A tepid response from management of a San Francisco nightclub over two recent fatal shootings connected to the venue may be grounds for revoking the business’ liquor license, the San Francisco Police Department advised a city commission.

The EndUp nightclub at 401 Sixth St. in the city’s South of Market neighborhood came under scrutiny following a shooting Sunday a block away from the club that took the life of 26-year-old Stockton resident John Sanyaolu.

In June, 19-year-old San Francisco resident Sean Ford died after a shooting at the EndUp.

Lt. Dave Falzon, the Police Department’s liaison with the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, addressed the slayings at the city Entertainment Commission’s regular meeting Tuesday night at City Hall.

He said a lukewarm response from the club’s management toward preventing violence could potentially warrant revocation of the business’ liquor license — valued at $300,000. Falzon said he and Police Department leaders met Tuesday with club owners and security regarding Sunday’s homicide, but were not satisfied with how the meeting went.

“This is the ultimate crime. We just got to get on top of it,” Falzon told commissioners. “We went to great lengths to them explaining, look, this is not a point-the-finger thing.

“Our anticipation today was that they were going to come in and recognize that they have a role in this incident. ... I got a lot of defensiveness.”

The EndUp has been in operation for more than 40 years, and Ynez Stiener said she has owned the venue for the last 11 years with her husband, Zoltan Stiener. She said they are in the process of retaining an attorney in response to the warning that they could lose their liquor license.

While the couple said the EndUp has cooperated with police, they assert the dance club has no culpability in the recent killings.

Zoltan Stiener said that he attended the police meeting and that authorities asked the management to take partial responsibility for Sunday’s crime even though it took place outside of the nightclub.

“I don’t know when the club’s responsibility ends and the person’s responsibility begins. That’s the moral question,” Zoltan Stiener said. “It’s horrible that somebody got shot, but why us?”

Ynez Stiener said authorities suspect the men involved in Sunday’s shooting were engaged in a fight that started at the EndUp’s Top 40 party and spilled onto the street. She said that was wrong and that there were no fights that night. Even if the men had been guests at the party, it ended at least a half-hour before the shooting, she said.

“What happens outside is a completely different story,” she said. “We can’t control what happened outside. We can’t police the streets for the Police Department.”

Falzon said he believes the EndUp is the only entertainment venue in the city to have a homicide this year. The developments worried Commissioner Audrey Joseph, who said the shootings could prove detrimental to the city’s nightlife reputation.

“In my opinion, it just seems that this commission and the entertainment community has worked incredibly hard not to be the attractive nuisance and the source of violence,” she said. “To have two homicides in three months at the same venue is incredibly troubling. I don’t want it to be a reflection on the entire entertainment community.”

In Sunday’s shooting, authorities said Sanyaolu was about a block away from the club at Sixth and Bryant streets when two men described as being in their mid-20s opened fire on him and two other men about 2:30 a.m. Police believe the men had all been guests at the EndUp, but no arrests have been made.

The San Francisco district attorney’s office dropped charges last week against two suspects in the other fatal shooting at the club after learning the victim brought the gun to the club.

After the June shooting, the EndUp took recommendations from the commission and decided to boost the number of security guards, perform full-body searches and add metal detectors, Ynez Stiener said.

“Why we’re being crucified for this and why they want to pin this on us is beyond me,” she said. “It feels as if we’re being used as a scapegoat for something. It doesn’t feel as if it’s being fair.”

Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJourno