‘No one deserves to die over playing a videogame’
Competitor talks about shooting that left three dead and several others injured
Marquis Williams and Taylor Poindexter at first thought they heard a balloon popping.
When the loud bangs kept coming, the Chicago couple and fellow video gamers attending a weekend tournament recognized them as gunfire and began scrambling for an exit.
As he fled, Williams, 28, said, he could see the back of the gunman’s head as the attacker appeared to be walking backward as he fired.
“We didn’t see like a face,” Poindexter, 26, told reporters a few hours after the attack, standing on crutches after spraining her ankle trying to escape. “We did see him with two hands on a gun, walking back just popping rounds.”
The couple said people trampled others in the panic to escape. They ran to a nearby restaurant, where workers were waving people inside, and hid in a bathroom until police arrived.
The deadly violence stunned gamers competing Sunday in Jacksonville during a “Madden NFL 19” video game tournament. Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said the gunman killed two people and shot nine others before fatally shooting himself.
The competition was held in a gaming bar that shares space with a pizzeria. Viewers could watch the games online and see the players.
Williams said authorities believe 24-year-old David Katz of Baltimore carried out the attack using at least one handgun at the Jacksonville Landing, a collection of restaurants and shops along the St. Johns River. He said final confirmation of the suspect’s identity was pending as the FBI in Baltimore aided in the investigation.
The sheriff said Katz was attending the tournament in Florida. The “Madden” game’s
maker, EA Sports, lists a David Katz as a 2017 championship winner.
Authorities did not give a motive for the shootings.
“No one deserves to die over playing a videogame, you know?” said “Madden” competitor Derek Jones, 30, of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
“We’re just out here trying to win some money for our families and stuff.”
Jones said he was sitting in a
back patio outside the tournament venue when he heard the gunshots Sunday.
He jumped a fence and ran, leaving behind his backpack and cellphone.
“You know, I’m glad I lost today,” Jones said. “Because if I’d won, I would have been in that game bar right then playing a game and not paying attention. And he could have come and I’d probably be dead right now.”