Little Rock Police are currently investigating a multiple shooting at the downtown Power Ultra Lounge nightclub early Saturday morning, in which 17 people were shot and others were injured attempting to flee the building. Immediately following the incident, Little Rock Police sent a tweet to say they do not believe the shooting incident was terror related or an active shooter situation, saying it was a dispute that got out of hand and ended with gunfire.
Number of victims in the nightclub shooting to still be confirmed
The New York Daily News reports that currently it is unclear how many were actually hurt in the incident, which happened after a fight broke out in the club in the early morning hours on Saturday.
A Finese2Tymes concert was ongoing at the nightclub at the time of the shooting. So far it is believed there were 17 shooting victims and others, including one couple who tried to jump out of a window at the club, were also injured in the chaos.
Police are investigating a shooting at the Power Lounge 220 W 6th, multiple victims, no suspect information is available. PAO on the scene.
— Little Rock Police (@LRpolice) July 1, 2017
Police Chief Kenton Buckner did say that none of victims of the incident suffered life threatening injuries and all were recovering. One victim was reportedly initially listed as being in critical condition, but has now been upgraded to stable.
NBC News quoted Buckner as saying the shooting started at around 2:30 a.m.
and there were many young people in the Power Ultra Lounge at the time, with the youngest victim believed to be 16 years of age.
Shooting incident in nightclub livestreamed on Facebook Live
Darryl Rankin was at the nightclub when it happened and was streaming to Facebook Live at the time the shooting started. The unclear cell phone footage shows people dancing and enjoying themselves in front of the stage when suddenly chaos ensues.
In the video around ten shots can be heard inside the nightclub, followed by numerous other volleys of shots. There is no sign of the shooter in the video footage but people can be heard screaming and panicking after the shooting.
A shortened version, starting with the shots fired, has been uploaded to YouTube and is included here.
The Facebook video has received 107,000 views at the time of writing, with one Facebook user, Tiara Mo'naee Thornton, commenting to say she had someone’s blood all over her and she was scared she wasn’t going to make it out of the nightclub. Songina Beasley commented to ask why people weren’t scanned before entering the club and asking where security was at the time of the shooting incident.
No details as yet of the suspects in the nightclub shooting
Buckner said it is too soon to give details of the suspects behind the shooting incident but did say they believe there could be multiple suspects. Arkansas Online quotes Buckner as saying the shooting victims are currently in three different hospitals in the area.
He added that police believe there may have been an off-duty police officer at the location but it wasn’t clear if they were inside when it happened. Buckner said some people may call the incident a mass shooting, but he calls it a multiple shooting. He said too many people were shot, adding that one is too many, but 17 is alarming and very disturbing.
