A birthday celebration ended in tragedy after nine people were injured in a mass shooting at the music venue in Cincinnati.
The shooting reportedly took place just before 1 a.m. at Riverfront Live, a music venue. According to Fox 19 Now, a witness reported the shooting took place after an altercation involving four to five people.
Cincinnati police said it was an isolated incident and that there was no ongoing threat to the public, but no suspects have been named. Officials said that “the investigation is still ongoing.”
Per Fox 19 Now, a spokesperson for UC Medical Center said one victim was in critical condition and five were stable, while two people were treated and released from the hospital. Another person was taken to a different hospital and was also released, the spokesperson said.
Riverfront Live was hosting a birthday celebration for DJ Fresh (billed as the “Black & White Pisces Bash”) that started at 10 p.m. on Saturday.
The mothers of two of the victims spoke to Fox 19 Now and blamed the shooting on the lack of venue security.
Antoinette Coates, whose 35-year-old son was shot four times but expected to survive, said that “if you’re going to be having these parties, protect your people.”
“Evidently, they’re letting people in without searching them, and they’re letting guns in, or they’re letting people bring guns, but I could have lost my son because somebody is being too cheap or too careless,” Coates said.
Another mom, Angel Potts, said her 25-year-old daughter was attending a birthday celebration and had just left the bathroom when the shooting began.
“And then she said they just dropped down and some of them went running and she went running towards the door and went out of the door and jumped the fence and went across to a United Dairy Farmer,” Potts said.
“They charge them $60 or $50 to get into this establishment and then they’re not safe,” she continued. “And then they’re letting people in that are not good people or have firearms on them when they were frisked on through the door. She said they patted her down, so she thought she would be safe.”
Potts said her daughter was “very distraught” following the shooting.
A witness told Fox 19 Now that following the altercation in the venue, he witnessed “three dudes came from the back and shoot the club up and ran out the way they came in.”
Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval tweeted about the incident and thanked first responders. The venue shared a similar message.