Cook's Corner Reopens Friday After Shooting, Owners Say

TRABUCO CANYON, CA — Cook's Corner, the Trabuco Canyon bar where a gunman killed three people and injured six other before being fatally shot by Orange County Sheriff's deputies, will reopen Friday, Sept. 1.

The choice to reopen comes after the general manager of the historic biker bar, Rhonda Palmeri, posted a video saying she wants to "bring the family back together."

Palmeri added that the community had been asking when the venue will reopen following the Aug. 23 shooting.

"We feel it's time to bring the family back together," she said. "We will be opening Friday at 11 a.m. There's so much to say and I just don't know how to say a lot of it. And once again our condolences go out to everybody who was here that evening.

"... We hope that when everybody comes back, they understand that we have been through a lot and there's a lot of things going on internally ... but we want to be here for the community, and we need the community to be here for us," she said.

While there won't be any live music performances over the weekend, a team of musicians will be performing at the bar on Monday afternoon.

"We're really looking forward to some good old fashioned music," she said, noting that many of the musicians planning to attend have played at the bar previously or even started their performing careers there.

The shooting occurred about 7 p.m. Aug. 23 at the bar in the 19100 block of Santiago Canyon Road.

OC Sheriff Don Barnes said the gunman — 59-year-old retired Ventura Police Department Sgt. Jon Snowling — entered the bar with two handguns and walked straight to his estranged wife, Marie, before shooting her once.

Marie Snowling was shot in the jaw but survived. According to reports, she filed for divorce from her husband late last year.

The gunman then shot the woman who was dining with his wife, 49-year-old Tonya Clark of Scottsdale, Arizona. Clark managed to run outside the bar, where she died, authorities said.

Also killed were Glen Sprowl Jr., 53, of Stanton, and John Leehey, 67, of Irvine.John Snowling was shot and killed by sheriff's deputies.

In addition to Marie Snowling, five other people were injured in the shooting, including some members of M Street, the band that was performing that night.

At 2 p.m. Sunday, M Street is planning to perform at a benefit show raising money for Cook's Corner patrons and their families who were impacted by the shooting. The benefit will be at Biergarten at Old World Huntington Beach, 7561 Center Ave.

Palmeri said another fundraiser is being planned by County Supervisor Don Wagner's office at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Library of the Canyons, 7531 E. Santiago Canyon Road in Silverado.

Cook's Corner is a well-known bar and biker hangout. The building is believed to date back to the late 1800s, although it did not begin operating as a restaurant until the 1920s. The restaurant bills itself as "one of the most famous biker bars in Southern California.

"Orange County leaders said that while Cook's Corner is known as a biker bar, it is really a regular gathering place for families and the community, particularly during its weekly Wednesday night $8 spaghetti dinner special, which was occurring when the shooting erupted.

"It's a gathering place," Barnes said. "It's a place for families to go to share a meal. It's a tight-knit community."

City News Service contributed to this article.