Gunman killed 21-year-old woman and wounded 7 others at Northwestern Dallas nightclub

Updated at 18:43 on March 21: Review to include additional comments from Dallas City Councilman Omar Narvaez.

One police officer was killed and seven others were injured when a gunman opened fire on a crowded northern Dallas nightclub early Saturday, police said.

Police were called to Pryme Bar on 10333 Technology Boulevard West, just south of the Northwest Highway and west of Interstate 35E, at about 1:30 a.m. and found eight people shot dead – five women and three men, aged between 18 and Was 46 years old, police said.

Officers determined that a quarrel broke out between two people inside, and that after a witness tried to intervene, someone pulled out a gun and started firing.

The gunman, described as a black man in his early 20s with dreadlocks and a blue shirt with a hat and jacket, remained at large, police said.

All eight victims were taken to hospitals. 21-year-old Daisy Navarrete of Plano died and the circumstances of the others ranged from good to critical, police said.

Navarrete had just turned 21 on Monday and was full of life, her mother, Judith Gonzalez, also from Plano, said. She was born and bred in Plano and works at FedEx, but hopes to go to nursing school one day.

“She was a beautiful, happy girl,” Gonzalez said. “She had a lot to live for. But not anymore, because now she’s gone.

“It was very, very difficult,” Gonzalez added. “We need the police to find the person who did this. It can not be left that way. ‘

Gonzalez said Navarrete went to the club “just to have fun.” She said it was the nightclub’s responsibility to make sure the area was safe, and she expressed anger at police and Pryme Bar for not taking steps to prevent the violence.

“How did someone get in there with a gun?” Gonzalez said. “The police have to look into all the details. If they were more careful, we would not go through all this nightmare. ”

“I do not want to die alone”

Stacks of blood-stained rags and clothes, shards of glass and bottles of alcohol were still scattered in the two-story club later Saturday morning. A light pink heel that according to employees belonged to one of the victims was sitting near the entrance next to a stack of colored clothes.

It was a busy Friday night with hundreds of partygoers, many of them young women, staff members said.

“There was a lot of chaos,” said Jeromy Skinner, an employee who was at the club overnight and returned early Saturday to help clean up.

Skinner says he was near the back of the club when the shooter stepped through a side door and was hit with another man near the front. The two were fighting near the entrance, then fired nine to twelve shots, Skinner said. The music was cut off, and people pushed each other wildly in a scramble to get out the back doors.

“If it’s anything, it’s weird that I’m alive because I saw a woman being shot,” Skinner said, adding that it was the moment he thought, “It really is.”

Police arrived within minutes, Skinner said. He said a wounded woman stumbled to the bathroom before saying to him, “Please help me, I do not want to die alone.”

“It will kill me for the rest of my life,” Skinner said. ‘I was just like’ Damn. ”

Skinner said employees were devastated by the shooting and that he could not sleep after arriving home around 5:30 p.m.

Greg Adams, 41, was one of two people cleaning outside the bar on Saturday morning. He said he was outside the building when the shooting happened and saw hundreds of people piling up through the back entrances. People also fled nearby businesses, he said.

Adams said he saw one officer pick up a woman who was shot in or near her leg and jumped to an ambulance.

“It was pandemonium,” Adams said, adding that he noticed a puddle of blood dripping from a side door when police stormed the scene.

A history of violence

Skinner says the shooting incident was not the first violent incident at the Pryme Bar, though he calls it the worst he has seen recently.

Dallas City Councilman Omar Narvaez, whose district includes Pryme Bar, said in an SMS statement Sunday that the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has suspended the nightclub’s liquor license for one week to investigate the Dallas Police Department’s investigation into Saturday’s to facilitate violence.

“I support the one-week suspension and will definitely support longer if DPD needs more time and requests longer,” Narvaez said, adding that the city will monitor the bar to ensure the suspension is met.

“I ask everyone to please breathe and think before using force during any disagreement,” Narvaez said.

Saturday’s bloodshed followed the fatal shooting of a man early Monday in the parking lot of XTC Cabaret, a nightclub on I-35E near Regal Row and Harry Hines Boulevard and not far from Pryme Bar.

In that case, Gregory Chandler was shot several times and pronounced dead at the scene. David McMillian, 43, was arrested on a charge of murder and remained in the Dallas County jail instead of $ 1 million bail.

Police are asking anyone with information about the Pryme Bar shooting to contact Detective Boz Rojas at 214-681-1786 or [email protected] and refer to case # 047116-2021.

Crime Stoppers offered a reward of up to $ 5,000 for information leading to arrest and charge in the case. Tips, which can be offered anonymously, can be given at 214-373-TIPS.