BUFFALO, N.Y. — Just two days after a shooting last month that injured an off-duty police officer, Groove Lounge was abruptly closed following an order from Buffalo Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood.

Now the business is taking legal action against both the Buffalo Police Department and Commissioner Lockwood.

Attorney Steven Cohen submitted a petition Monday seeking a temporary restraining order to re-open Groove Lounge.

"There's 20 employees there who no longer have a job, they can't bring paychecks home to their families, so the first thing we hope to do is get a judge to sign a temporary restraining order enjoining the police from enforcing that illegal order," said Cohen, litigation chair at HoganWillig.

He also wants to see the lost revenue returned.

"Lots and lots of food had to be thrown out, lots of revenues have been lost and they continue to be lost," he said.

They will also seek a hearing to determine whether it was shut down under dire emergency.

"All right, what's a dire emergency?,” Cohen asked. “I would say if there was drugs being dealt on the premises, if there were known criminals colluding and conspiring on premises, that may be a dire emergency, but to say that on the streets outside of a business, in a high-crime neighborhood, constitutes a dire emergency, that's stretching it.”

But Cohen says even if it's found that there is dire emergency, only the mayor of the city is has the authority to make that declaration.

"This is a non-delegable power, the commissioner does not have that authority,” he said. “I suppose if the commissioner had, if it was written on the notice that the commissioner by the authority of the mayor had done it, then maybe there would be that argument, but in this case, a brand new police commissioner took it upon himself to shut down a lawful, licensed, well-run, highly secure business."

Last week the mayor said he ordered the commissioner to shut down the business, commenting further, "It's not the city's policy to shut down businesses, but as we have said many times in the past, if the business is not doing a good job in controlling behavior or their patrons, if it creates an environment where patrons of a business are not safe and people who lived in the surrounding neighborhood are not safe, we will take action."

He could not comment any further due to pending litigation.