Firefighter owns nuisance bar

A city firefighter owns the North Philly nuisance bar that served as a backdrop for a spate of shootings that left Police Officer Ashley Hoggard and three other men wounded on Sunday.

State records list Eugene Coulter Jr., 32, as the president of Gen-Wal, Inc., the company that owns the Franchise Sports Bar at Broad and Somerset streets.

Coulter was hired as a firefighter in May 2006 and makes $45,792 a year working at Ladder 9, on Market Street near 20th, Fire Department officials said.

He normally works the 6 p.m.-to 6 a.m. shift at the firehouse.

Through the firefighter's union, Local 22, Coulter declined to comment on the decision by the city's Nuisance Bar Task Force on Monday to close the bar for being a "public nuisance leading to violence on the block."

Fire Department Executive Chief Daniel Williams said Coulter is not facing disciplinary actions "at this time" for his involvement with the bar.

The department is reviewing the case internally. Coulter could face some repercussons "if conditions warrant them," Williams said.

Meanwhile, the police investigation into the shooting continued yesterday. Detectives brought one "person of interest" to Police Headquarters for questioning, a source said.

The source said the man, whose name was not released, had not been charged with wounding Hoggard, 26, or the other victims: Demetrius Dixon, 38, Kevin Curtis, 32, and Frank Whitmore, 31.

Hoggard, Dixon and Curtis remained in good condition yesterday at Temple University Hospital, a police spokeswoman said. Whitmore was released earlier.

All were wounded when a torrent of gunfire was unleashed outside the bar about 2:30 a.m. Sunday.

At least 30 shell casings and projectiles were found near the bar, a watering hole residents say they have complained about for years.

Moments before the shots rang out, surveillance footage showed a customer handing out four or five handguns from a trash bag to others who were still inside the bar, investigators said. *