A rifle-toting gunman opened fire near a bar in Dayton, Ohio, killing nine people. The shooter is also dead, and 16 people have been hospitalized with injuries, police said, Daily Beast reports.
The bloodshed in Ohio unfolded just hours after 20 people were killed by a gunman stalked a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, after apparently posting a racist diatribe.
The motive in the Dayton massacre was unknown.
According to police, it began at 1:55 a.m. in an area known as the Oregon District. The Dayton Daily News said it occurred near a bar called Ned Peppers.
“We had officers in the immediate vicinity when this shooting began and were able to respond and put an end to it quickly,” police said in a tweet.
Police—who said the FBI is assisting the investigation—did not specify whether they killed the gunman or he took his own life.
It appears the toll could have been even worse. The Daily News reported that a witness posted online that the shooter “tried to go into the bar but did not make it through the door.”
“Someone took the gun from him and he got shot and is dead,” the posting said.
“There are at least eight people dead right by the picnic table where I was on the street. A bunch of people taken to the hospital. I don’t know how any... this place is a disaster.”
Those details could not be immediately confirmed.