Gang rivalry suspected in Ark. club shooting

More than 25 injured in crowded lounge

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Police say 25 people were shot when a suspected gang rivalry erupted inside a packed club in Little Rock, Ark., early Saturday.

Several others were injured attempting to escape, with reports that some jumped from second-story windows at the Power Ultra Lounge.

Two people were still in critical condition Saturday afternoon, according to police.

“When you force these two communities into a small room and some kind of dispute ensues, it was a recipe for disaster,” Police Chief Kenton Buckner told reporters.

Mayor Mark Stodola told reporters the Power Ultra Lounge would be shut down for unspecific violations. “We’re going to be extra vigilant with the people walking the streets with guns,” he added.

The police department was trying to find multiple suspected shooters, as well as the rapper who was performing at the club, Ricky Hampton of Memphis, who police said had arrest warrants related to violence at his shows in other cities.

Police did not say what sort of gang dispute was suspected in the incident.

Buckner said it could have been related to about a dozen drive-by shootings that took place in Little Rock the previous week. He also told reporters he was aware of a long-standing feud between groups in Little Rock and Memphis.

Hampton, who goes by the stage name Finese 2Tymes, was performing in Memphis in April when a shooting erupted there, according to WMC Action News 5 — although no injuries were reported that time.

The rapper, who couldn’t be reached by The Post, referred to the violence in the lyrics of a music video posted last month: “I had a shootout at my show. It made the news!”

People packed shoulder-toshoulder into the lounge late Friday, as seen in Facebook Live video from the concert, which Hampton advertised on social media with a photograph looking down a gun barrel.

Two off-duty police officers were working the parking lot, Buckner said. Shortly before they went home about 2 a.m., the chief said, the officers refused entry to a group of people, one of whom openly carried a gun.

Somehow, the chief said, those people found another way in. About a half-hour later, he said, “some sort of dispute ensued in the audience.”