Seattle club loses liquor license

SEATTLE – The Pioneer Square nightclub where Seahawks safety Ken Hamlin was severely beaten last fall has lost its liquor license.

Seattle police and agents of the state Liquor Control Board removed all liquor from the premises of Larry’s Nightclub on Friday. Agents served owner Larry Culp with an emergency-suspension notice enacted “for the protection, welfare, health, peace, morals and safety of the state of Washington.”

Police and agents arrived about 7:45 p.m. and barred the public from the club while the liquor was removed, bartender Jeff Stine told the Seattle Times. By 9:30 p.m., it was all gone.

Culp said he had notified his lawyer and plans to challenge the suspension in court next week.

The suspension comes nearly a week after a man told police he was stabbed in the chest during a Dec. 31 fight inside the club. Assistant Police Chief Nick Metz said the man’s condition was unknown but that the department’s homicide unit was investigating.

Culp and Stine said they were nearby when the fight broke out. They said it lasted less than two minutes, and bouncers threw out the men involved. About 20 minutes later, Culp and Stine said another patron told them someone was stabbed during the fight.

“I’m still not convinced it happened,” Culp said Friday night in his empty club. “I think we’re being picked on” because of the Oct. 17 attack on Hamlin.

That night, someone apparently used a metal street sign to bash three-year starter Hamlin in the head during a fight outside the club.

Hamlin suffered a fractured skull, a blood clot on the brain and a broken hand. Police still cannot say whether the beating is linked to the subsequent slaying of another man who was at the club that night.

It is not known whether Hamlin will recover sufficiently to rejoin the NFL club.

Coach Mike Holmgren has barred team members from Pioneer Square, a historic bar and restaurant district just north of Qwest Field.