Police: Restaurant shootout kills 2

CLEVELAND >> An early morning shootout between two men in an Ohio restaurant killed two people and injured two others who were arrested, police said.

Cleveland police said officers were called to My Friends Restaurant at about 4 a.m. Monday and found a 21-year-old woman on the ground outside with apparent gunshot wounds. A 27-year-old man with a gunshot wound to his neck was found inside the restaurant. Both were pronounced dead at MetroHealth Medical Center, police said.

One man was found in the kitchen area of the restaurant with a gunshot wound to his leg and a broken tiibia and was hospitalized. Another was taken by private auto to the hospital with gunshot wounds to his arm, leg and face. He was treated and booked at Cuyahoga County Jail.

Police said the preliminary homicide unit investigation indicates that two groups of people were in the popular 24-hour restaurant when a man started arguing with the man who was killed. Police said the two men later arrested pulled out guns and started shooting at each other, wounding each other and killing the two victims.

Police said multiple shell casings were found at the scene and two firearms were recovered. Officials didn’t immediately specify charges against the two men arrested. The names of the two people killed weren’t immediately released.

Council member Jenny Spencer said in a statement that violent crime is unusual in the area, and it was her understanding that “no other patrons were present at the time of the shooting,” WEWSTV reported.