Saturday's football game between the University of Dayton and host Central State University will be played as scheduled, CSU officials said Friday. The game will be dedicated to Kordero Hunter, who was inside a Dayton bar when someone opened fire. Hunter, an innocent bystander, was struck by a bullet and died.
DAYTON — Officers have issued an arrest warrant for a man suspected of shooting into a downtown nightclub, killing a Central State University football player and injuring one other person.
Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said Friday afternoon that Jason Dashaun Shern is wanted in connection with the shooting. Shern is 30 years old black man who is 6-foot-7 and weighs 180 pounds. He is considered armed and dangerous.
A Central State University football player died after he was shot early Friday morning inside a downtown club.
Kordero D. Hunter, who turned 21 on Sept. 6, was a defensive back on the CSU team. Hunter was from Country Club Hills, Ill.
Family members said police told them Hunter was an innocent bystander.
Police were called to the A List Lounge, 212 S. Ludlow St., at 1:42 a.m., according to Dayton Police Sgt. Moises Perez.
Detectives believe Shern fired the shots, and officers were searching for him as of 4 p.m.
Perez said a large number of CSU students were brought by charter buses to the night spot for a college night. The suspected shooter is not a CSU student.
According to Perez, the shooting was a result of an argument between two groups. The owner escorted some of the people involved outside the club. He told police as he was escorting one man out of the club he saw a young woman hand a firearm to another man already thrown out of the club. That man then opened fire through the front window of the lounge.
Police recovered three shell casings from the scene. One of the rounds hit a male CSU student in the neck. A female student was struck in the arm by flying glass, and a another woman was trampled in the panic that followed the gunfire. All three were taken to Miami Valley Hospital. The two women were treated for their injuries and released. The man remains at the hospitalized; hospital officials declined to release his condition.
Hunter was hit by a single round to the chest and died in the hospital emergency room, Perez said.
At least one other woman went to a hospital in Greene County after she was having some breathing problems.
Minutes after police were called to A-List, they received another shooting call for an incident on Jefferson Street.
Police believe that shooting was the result of an argument inside Hammerjax-Dayton, 111 E. Fourth St., between two groups of women, Perez said. The argument moved outside, where shots were fired.
One person was shot in the leg and had some broken bones. However, the victim’s injuries were considered non-life threatening. Perez said the victim was not involved in the initial argument.
The suspect fled in unknown direction, but officers believe they also know the identity of the shooter.
Police said that in both cases, the bars were crowded past their capacity. In 2009, the police department launched a Bar Safe program to combat violence at local nightspots. Bar owners and employees who attended the numerous Bar Safe workshops were told that bar crowding was one of the key factors to violence and given strategies — including limiting the number of patrons — to handle the problem.
“There were just too may people there,” Perez said.
Pictures from inside the A List showed several hundred people crammed into the bar.
The maximum occupancy for the club is 99 people, according to the Dayton Fire Department.
Anyone with information about the shootings or the whereabouts of the shooters should contact Dayton police at 333-COPS.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2414 or kwynn@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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