Cops said Sunday they are now looking for “several shooters” in the Cincinnati nightclub shooting, as the name of the dead victim was released.
O’Bryan Raphael Spikes, 27, was killed and 15 other people wounded during the “chaotic” shooting that broke out at 2:20 a.m. inside Cameo nightclub, police said.
“Motive is still unclear but there are no indications this incident is terrorism-related,” Cincinnati assistant police chief Paul Neudigate tweeted.
Authorities had originally said they were looking for more than one shooter – before correcting themselves to say only one gunman was wanted and then reversing themselves again.
“What we know at this point in the investigation [is that] several local men got into some type of dispute inside the bar and it escalated to shots being fired from several individuals,” police chief Eliot Isaac said.
Club security makes patrons go through a metal detector.
“What we know at this point [is that] several firearms were able to be brought inside the bar,” Isaac said.
Spikes lived in the Winton Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati, officials said.
And of the 15 wounded, two were listed in critical condition on Sunday, police said.
Police operate at a crime scene outside the Cameo Nightclub after a fatal shooting,AP
“You begin to wonder, where is it safe to go?” Ohio Gov. John Kasich bemoaned to CNN’s “State of the Union” and host Dana Bash.
“I have spoken to our head of public safety, Dana, and the fact is, you don’t want to get – you don’t want to be speculating. But it appears as though there was one shooter, not terrorism-related.”
City Manager Harry Black said the deadly confrontation started between two groups earlier, well before combatants had reached Cameo.
“This conflict is believed to have begun between two specific groups or individuals earlier in the day, escalating and ultimately leading to this tragedy,” he said.
The dance club was filled late Saturday night and early Sunday morning when shots rang out at 4601 Kellogg Ave.
“It was a chaotic scene,” Sgt. Eric Franz told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “The club was completely packed.”
A witness said the gunfire – at least 20 shots – boomed over the club’s loud, pulsating beat.
“It was a big gun because you heard it over the music,” club-goer and Cleveland resident Mauricio Thompson said. “Everybody’s running, Everybody scattered to get out of the club.
Four police officers were already at the nightclub working as security guards – two at the entrance and two more in the parking lot – when shots rang out.
“It was just a lot of chaos, obviously, when the shots went off,” Capt. Kimberly Williams told WLWT. “People (were) just trying to get out of harm’s way.”
Cops are asking clubgoers, who fled for their lives, to call them.
“Many of the witnesses fled, but everyone that we can identify is being interviewed,” Neudigate said.
All the victims were taken to five different hospitals.
“People were just going to have a good time, and they got shot. That is totally unacceptable,”said Mayor John Cranley, calling the shooting a “heinous crime.”