`Gunshots just started ringing out'
Dance organizer describes disturbing scene inside Duggan Community Hall
Just another song or two and the party's over, the DJ announced moments before gunshots and screams rang through Duggan Community Hall early Sunday.
It was nearly 3:30 a.m. when the organizer asked the DJ to start winding down, but the event came to a crashing halt when someone pulled a gun. One man was killed and six were injured, police said in a news release on Sunday.
“Everyone was just trying to ... have a good time, and suddenly gunshots just started ringing out,” the organizer said. “It was terrifying.”
Postmedia has chosen to withhold the organizer's name over safety concerns.
He was in the kitchen when he heard the gunfire.
“You don't even know where the gunshots are coming from, you don't know who fired a gun ... who was involved — nothing,” he said. “You start running, you don't even know if you're running toward the gunshot.”
He spent the rest of the time on the kitchen floor. He recalled hearing bullets fly for around 15 minutes before they stopped, and then started again.
Police officers arrived around 4 a.m. The organizer says officers yelled for those in the kitchen to come out with their hands up, and they were told to lay on the ground until the officer realized he and the group he was with posed no threat.
He saw a man lying in a pool of blood as he was leaving near a washroom.
Postmedia has seen a video of what looks to be a man seriously wounded that night. In the shaky footage, a man lays on his left side and rolls onto his stomach on a tiled floor streaked with blood and littered with debris. A gun lays on the ground about a metre away.
Police said on Sunday officers found a man dead on the floor inside the building, but it's unclear whether the man in the video succumbed to his injuries. Police did not respond to requests for clarification and updated information by deadline.
A second video shows another view of the chaotic night.
The footage is of poor quality. A man at the back of the hall appears to hold a dark object, then lowers his arm moments before a loud bang. He walks slowly out of the room while another man walks toward the camera and away from the man. A woman yells in the background and commotion is heard behind the camera before it shuts off.
The organizer viewed still images of the two videos and confirmed they were taken at the venue where his event was held. A webpage dedicated to hall rentals on the Duggan Community Leagues' website show interior photos that match the gymnasium in the video.
Three security guards were hired for the Saturday night event. Two were stationed at the front patting down attendees and using a metal detector. A third stood at the back.
Police put crowd estimates between 200 and 300.