INDIANAPOLIS — The owners of a bar on the west side of Indianapolis are now facing criminal charges.
The Marion County Prosecutor's Office charged Marvin and Gabby Betancourt with six counts each, including corrupt business influence and failure to remit food and beverage tax.
The El Chila Sports Bar in the 6300 block of West 34th Street was also the location of an incident last November when an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer shot and injured a man after he failed to drop a gun he allegedly pointed at a crowd outside the bar.
"We need our business partners to be good neighbors in the community. We don't want to allocate excessive law enforcement resources to a particular location because they're not properly running their business," IMPD Captain Chris Boomershine said.
"When we had the police-action (shooting) last November, that was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back and so we began looking into the location with a little bit more deliberation and we learned the business was not being properly run."
The shooting prompted IMPD to create a task force with the Indiana Department of Revenue and the Marion County Prosecutor's Office to take a closer look at the business.
Since December 2018, the sports bar has been the scene of 29 incidents, including aggravated assaults, narcotics investigations and the officer-involved shooting.
According to the state, the Betancourts have allegedly failed to pay more than $83,000 in food and beverage taxes.
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