WICHITA, Kan — Authorities now believe the Florissant, Missouri man who was arrested in connection to a shooting in a Kansas nightclub early Sunday morning was acting in self-defense.
The shooting left 11 people injured, including two more people hospitalized after being trampled in a rush for the exits, police said.
Monday, authorities announced a 31-year-old Florissant man was booked on suspicion of aggravated battery.
In a Thursday update, the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office said video surveillance shows the man appeared to have fired his gun in response to shots fired by two other men in the bar. Based on the evidence, prosecutors believed he was acting in self-defense and did not charge him.
The man was set to be released from custody Thursday afternoon.
Wichita Police Lt. Aaron Moses said investigators believe several shooters opened fire inside the City Nightz club just before 1 a.m.
Shots were fired from at least four guns inside the club, Moses said. Police have recovered four guns and were working to determine if they were the weapons the shooters used.
No one was killed but one person was critically injured. All the victims were being treated at an area hospital, Moses said.
The gunshot victims included five men between the ages of 21 and 34, a 21-year-old woman, and a 24-year-old woman, Moses said. The two people trampled were a 30-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man.
Detective Chris Merceau said during a news conference Sunday morning that police have been called to the nightclub about a dozen times this year for various incidents, including a report of aggravated battery and a drive-by shooting on May 21.
He said police met with the club's owner after that incident and discussed the importance of using electronic wands to detect weapons on patrons and surveillance cameras. He said investigators will work to determine if any of those recommendations were followed.
A message The Associated Press left on the club's voicemail Sunday morning wasn't immediately returned. Police said the club and surrounding area will be shut down for some time while investigators examine the scene.
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.
According to the police department's Facebook page, a 17-year-old boy was found dead around 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Investigators said it appears he was shot during an argument with a 21-year-old man, who showed up at a hospital with a gunshot wound to his hand. About twenty minutes after the shootings at City Nightz on Sunday morning, a 35-year-old man was walking down a road when an unknown suspect shot him in the arm.
“We have to take actions to push back against this increase in gun violence that we are seeing,” Mayor Brandon Whipple said. “We have to come together as a community and talk with our young people in particular about how resorting to gun violence is not the way to solve a problem or issue.”