Gunman storms stage, kills 4 at Ohio nightclub
Police officer shoots suspect to death
Thursday, December 9, 2004 Posted: 11:48 AM EST (1648 GMT)
Police block the entrance to the nightclub after the shooting Wednesday night.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (CNN) -- A gunman stormed the stage during a heavy metal concert in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday night, firing at the band and audience and killing four people before a police officer shot and killed him, police said.
One of the dead was guitarist 'Dimebag' Darrell Abbott, 38, of the band Damageplan. The gunman also wounded two people.
Columbus police identified the suspect as Nathan Gale, 25, of nearby Marysville but said they had no information about a motive or possible connection to the band.
The man was 'targeting members in the band,' Columbus police Sgt. Brent Mull said.
Before the gunman was shot, police said, he grabbed a hostage and fired into the crowd. The hostage was unharmed, Mull said.
The attack came shortly after Damageplan began its performance at the Alrosa Villa nightclub on Columbus' north end.
One of the wounded is in critical condition, and the other is hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said. Two others were hurt and treated at the scene, although the nature of their injuries was not clear.
The gunman initially shot the band's guitarist, Abbott, witnesses said.
He and his brother, Vinnie Paul Abbott, 40, formed Damageplan after Pantera -- a group they formed in the 1980s -- broke up last year. Their father is Jerry Abbott, a country and western songwriter and producer.
Police were notified of the shooting around 10:18 p.m., Mull said. A uniformed police officer who was near the scene slipped into the venue from a back entrance, confronted the gunman during the rampage and killed him, authorities said.
'If not for the officer who showed up, there would have been more dead,' Mull said.
At least one of those killed -- Nathan Bray -- was an audience member. Mull identified another deceased victim as Erin Halk, although it was unclear if he was attending the concert or an employee.
Mull did not identify the other fatality. Abbott was the only band member confirmed dead 'at this point,' he said.
Witnesses described the shooter as a heavyset man, wearing a Columbus Blue Jackets hockey jersey.
Police roped off a huge area of the nightclub's parking lot as 60 detectives questioned hundreds of witnesses. Police brought in buses to keep the witnesses warm as they waited.
Calvin Bota said he saw the shooting from the mosh pit right in front of the stage, shortly after the band began playing.
'Somebody came -- I don't know where they came from, out of the audience or whatnot -- but they come onto the stage and ... he shot the guitarist at first, fired a couple of other shots and then he hid behind the stage a little bit,' Bota told CNN affiliate WSYX.
'Everybody started scattering, you know, there's mayhem everywhere. And then a police officer came into the building, you know, came in professional with his gun raised, and then he proceeded to shoot the guy.'
Gerald Caudill said the gunman shot the guitarist at least four times.
'I was up close to the stage, and I just saw some guy run up on the side of the stage, and I heard some shots and I saw drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott fall, and somebody jumped on top of Vinnie, and the guy just stayed around the stage and started shooting other people,' Caudill said.
'I saw wounded people all over the place, out in the parking lot, inside,' he said. 'It just didn't sound like gunshots or anything; it didn't occur to me that something like that was happening.'
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