A shooting in a Kansas nightclub early on Sunday morning left seven people with gunshot wounds and two more people hospitalised after being trampled as people fled, police said.
Shots were fired just before 1am in the City Nightz nightclub on North Washington Street, Wichita Police Lt. Aaron Moses said during a press conference at the scene.
“We have seven people who have been shot. We have two people who have been trampled during the mass exodus out (of) the club,” Moses said, noting the investigation was still in the preliminary stage. “There were no fatalities, but there was one critical injury. All the victims were being treated at an area hospital,” he added.
“The gunshot victims included five men between the ages of 21 and 34, a 21-year-old woman and a 24-year-old woman,” Moses said during a news conference later Sunday morning. The two people who were trampled were a 30-year-old woman and a 31-year-old male.
“Shots were fired from at least four guns during the incident,” Moses said. “A person whom police believe was one of perhaps several shooters has been taken into custody,” he said.
Detective Chris Merceau said during the news conference that police have been called to the nightclub about a dozen times this year for various incidents, including a report of aggravated battery and a drive-by shooting on May 21.
He said after that incident police met with the club's owner and discussed the importance of using electronic wands to detect weapons on patrons and surveillance cameras. He said investigators will work to determine if any of those recommendations were followed. Police said the club and surrounding area will be shut down for some time while investigators examine the scene.
The shootings were part of a particularly violent night in Wichita, a city of nearly 4,00,000 people about 200 miles (320 kilometres) southwest of Kansas City, Missouri. According to the police department's Facebook page, a 17-year-old boy was found dead around 6.30pm on Saturday.
Investigators said it appears he was shot during an argument with a 21-year-old man, who showed up at a hospital with a gunshot wound to his hand. About twenty minutes after the shootings at City Nightz on Sunday morning, a 35-year-old man was walking down a road when an unknown suspect shot him in the arm.
“We have to take actions to push back against this increase in gun violence that we are seeing,” Mayor Brandon Whipple said at the second news conference. “We have to come together as a community and talk with our young people in particular about how resorting to gun violence is not the way to solve a problem or issue.”
