Investigators believe several gunmen opened fire inside the City Nightz club just before 1 a.m., Wichita Police Lieutenant Aaron Moses said.
Release date – 06:40 AM, Monday – July 3
Kansas City: Seven people were shot in a shooting at a Kansas nightclub early Sunday morning and two others were hospitalized when they were trampled on as they rushed to the exit, police said.
Investigators believe several gunmen opened fire inside the City Nightz club around 1 a.m., Wichita police Lt. Aaron Moses said. One suspect was in custody as of Sunday morning, Moses said.
At least four guns were fired inside the club, Moses said. Police have recovered four guns and are working to determine if they were the weapons used by the shooter.
No one was killed, but one person was seriously injured. All victims were being treated at area hospitals, Moses said.
The shooting victims included five men, aged 21 to 34, a 21-year-old woman and a 24-year-old woman, Moses said. The two people who were trampled were a 30-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man.
Police have been called to the nightclub more than a dozen times this year for various incidents, including a serious assault and a drive-by that occurred on May 21, Detective Chris Merceau said at a news conference Sunday morning. shooting incident.
After the incident, police met with club owners and discussed the importance of using electronic wands to detect patrons and weapons on surveillance cameras, he said. Investigators will try to determine whether those recommendations were followed, he said.
A message left on the club’s voicemail by The Associated Press on Sunday morning was not immediately returned. The club and surrounding area will be closed for a period of time while investigators inspect the scene, police said.
The shootings were part of a particularly violent night in Wichita, a city of nearly 400,000 people about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City, Missouri.
A 17-year-old boy was found dead at around 6.30pm on Saturday, according to the police department’s Facebook page. Investigators said he appeared to have been shot during an altercation with a 21-year-old man who emerged from hospital with a gunshot wound to his hand. About 20 minutes after the shooting in City Nightz on Sunday morning, a 35-year-old man was walking on the road when an unidentified suspect shot him in the arm.
“We must act to curb the increase in gun violence that we’re seeing,” Mayor Brandon Whipple said.
“We have to come together as a community and discuss with our young people in particular that resorting to gun violence is not the answer.”
