At least 9 people were killed and 16 injured in a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, early Sunday morning, police said.
Dayton Police Lt. Col. Matt Carper said a person opened fire in the city’s Oregon District at around 1.20 a.m. The shooter was killed at the scene by multiple officers.
The gender and identity of the shooter were not released.
The Oregon District is a historic area in Dayton with a vibrant bar and restaurant scene. Eyewitness videos appeared to show people running through the streets as a rapid popping noise ― apparently gunfire ― disturbed the air.
Two neighboring bars in the area ― Ned Peppers and Hole In The Wall ― penned matching notes on Facebook on Sunday: “All of our staff is safe and our hearts go out to everyone involved as we gather information,” the notes read.
The attack in Dayton came hours after at least 20 people were killed in a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and less than a week after a gunman opened fire at a garlic festival in California, killing three people including two children.
According to USA Today, the El Paso massacre marked the 250th mass shooting in the United States in 2019.
On Saturday evening, WDTN, the NBC affiliate in Dayton, posted an article about local law enforcement offering a class on “lifesaving techniques for mass shootings.”
″[You should] at least prepare yourself because if you’ve never thought about [a shooting] before it happens, once it happens it’s too late. You’re going to panic. You’re going to lose the precious seconds of timing that you need to escape,” John Davis, Centerville police’s community relations officer, told the station.