CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Approximately 60 people hit the floor inside a Charleston bar when shots started to ring out early Saturday morning. Police continue their investigation into the death of a Dunbar man inside the bar.
“All at once you can see everybody just hit the deck,” Charleston Police Department Chief of Detectives Lt. Steve Cooper said Monday on 580-Live with Charleston Mayor Danny Jones. “People were getting shot, running over top of people, shooting in the air. There were just muzzle flashes going off all through the bar in the surveillance video.”
There were also a lot of guns found after the shooting, Cooper said.
“We found numerous weapons lying around after the shooting….guns that were covered in blood,” he said.
The shooting was at Boondock’s Bar and Grill on West Washington Street near 7th Ave. Jamaine Sutton, 32, of Dunbar, was killed. Police are looking for the shooter. They’ve issued an arrest warrant for Donnell Strong (Pops A Lot), 27, of Brooklyn, for allegedly firing some of the shots.
“We have surveillance video identifying him as one of the shooters,” Cooper said. “We’re working on identifying the guy who committed the homicide.”
Cooper previously said the bar shooting followed a fight two groups had gotten into at another location earlier in the night.
Among the three people injured in the shooting at Boondock’s was Nathaniel Williams, 29, of Dunbar. He was shot seven times, Cooper said.
“He was shot in the face, the back, the leg. He’s going to survive. He’s conscious. Information coming from him is pretty vague,” Cooper said.
The other injured have been identified as Anthony Grant, 25, of Dunbar and Khalil Bush.
State Alcohol Beverage Control Agency Commission Ron Moats has suspended the alcohol license of Boondock’s Bar for 10 days. Cooper hopes it becomes permanent.
“We’re hopeful they’ll do all they can to put this to a stop permanently. That bar is a death trap,” Cooper said.
Police believe at least one of those 60 people in the bar know who killed Sutton, but not many are cooperating, Cooper said.
“We’ll do it the hard way, the old-fashioned way, and figure it out on our own unless someone will come forward and identify him. We’re hopeful that will happen,” Cooper said.