The nightclub was in a state of complete chaos.
There had been so much shooting that people out in the street heard it. Someone had phoned the police and within minutes two detectives turned up. Nobody was allowed to leave until everybody’s statements were taken. There were so many that they called in a couple of uniforms to help out. They all had to be questioned; all two hundred and eleven of them! The wounded, seventeen of them, were ambulanced away. The four people shot, three men and one woman, were left were they fell and would be examined when the path team arrived. Meanwhile, everyone was corralled into a corner of the dancefloor and called forward one at a time. All twelve firearms were collected and tagged; which of these had been fired would be determined later.
While this was going on, the pathology people were doing their thing, examining the bodies and taking pictures. Four sets of tables and chairs were arranged away from the other patrons enabling the four officers to get names, addresses and brief statements. Although it wasn’t clear at the time, but would become clear later, the whole thing had started with two of the club’s attendees getting into an argument. Regardless of this, it was only necessary to get statements without trying to work out how such a horrible scene of bedlam and loss of life had come about. The statements being gathered were however showing up a general pattern of discord among the people in the club.
Certainly, the flashing lights and the loud music didn’t help. There had been a few moments of complete darkness between the dance lights being turned off and normal lighting coming on. Detectives were there for hours taking statements. There seemed to be a common thread of dissatisfaction with just about everything running through what the officers were being told. Although it was not apparent what particular issue had started it all off. It may have been gender equality, but it’s hard to tell.
It seemed to kick off with heated arguments about gender equality and transgender rights, but this got taken over by more people joining in, voicing issues about union corruption, capital punishment, corruption in politics and gay rights. Then abortion issues came into it, along with animal rights, religious freedom, the right to privacy, human trafficking and the legalization of marijuana. As far as anyone could tell, a quite separate group began fiercely debating capitalism, the behaviour of the banks, the student debt crisis, minimum wage, and universal healthcare. There were quarrels about police brutality and terrorism. It was probably the shouting matches on the subjects of immigration, gun control, global climate change, genetic cloning, the right to die and the pharmaceutical industry that led to guns being drawn. It all seemed to go downhill very fast from that point. From the various accounts of what happened, it could be seen that things quietened down when COVID-19 was mentioned. This was soon followed by someone mentioning the US presidents name.
That’s when the shooting started.