Witnesses to Damageplan Shooting Speak

Written by Eric Olsen
Published January 18, 2005

Since the idiotic Columbus Dispatch isn't available without charge online, we must resort to AP for details from the Dispatch's Sunday update on the Damageplan shootings story:

    Concertgoers who witnessed a fatal nightclub shooting frantically called emergency operators on cell phones and tried to resuscitate the wounded, with some having to wash victims' blood from their hands, faces and clothes afterward.

    ....Billy Clark climbed over a barricade and reached onto the stage to try to help slain guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott after he was shot.

    "I said, 'We've got to get him out of here. He's still a target,'" Clark recalled.

    ...."I'm not sure if the soldier in me took over. He was up there bleeding and needed help," said Clark, an Army veteran who carried Abbott off the stage with at least three others and began to attempt CPR. Abbott was later pronounced dead at the scene.

    ....Aaron Barns, a sound technician for the show, said a man later identified as Gale approached the tour bus shortly before the band took the stage to ask if Abbott and his brother, drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott, were on board.

    ....At least 10 people called 911 when shootings broke out, several from inside the club.

    "The person is still loose with the gun," Linda Moore, 42, of Columbus, told the emergency operator. "Please hurry, please."

    As police officers arrived, Gale grabbed one of his victims, whom authorities have declined to name, and began using him as a shield. Some bystanders pointed at Gale and screamed for officers to shoot him.

    Officer James D. Niggemeyer, 31, entered through the back door of the club and killed Gale with a single blast from his shotgun, authorities said.

    "I had to do it. I had to do it," bystanders recalled Niggemeyer as saying immediately afterward.

    Officer Ricky Crum, who was also at the scene, said he believes Gale was preparing to fire at other officers in the club when Niggemeyer fired. Afterward, some bystanders cursed at Gale and kicked his body and had to be ordered out of the building, Crum said.

    ....William Wever, a 33-year-old Mount Vernon man trained in CPR, washed blood from his hands, face and clothing in the club's bathroom after the ordeal. He had jumped on stage to attempt to resuscitate Jeff "Mayhem" Thompson, Damageplan's security chief, along with several others. Thompson later died at a hospital.

    "I have no clue why I jumped up there," said Wever. "I wasn't thinking anything. I just did it."

    Alrosa manager Rick Cautela said he remembers his last view of Dimebag's brother, Vinnie Paul, who took refuge in the club's front bar.

    "He was wrapped in a blanket, and he was clutching Dimebag's guitar," Cautela said.

Damageplan's manager says another release is likely. "There were recordings the band laid down prior to Dimebag's death that are near completion," manager Paul Bassman told Billboard in his first interview since the incident. "[Drummer/Abbott's brother] Vinnie Paul has said there will be a follow-up album down the road, as Dime would have wanted his music to be heard."

Bassman added, "The outpouring of kind thoughts, sadness and condolences have meant so much to all of us. On behalf of all the families impacted by this horrible tragedy, let me share a public acknowledgement of our gratitude."

Career media professional Eric Olsen is honored to be the founder and publisher of Blogcritics.org, which, quite frankly, rules - as do his wife and four children.
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Witnesses to Damageplan Shooting Speak
Published: January 18, 2005
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Filed Under: Music: News
Writer: Eric Olsen
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