Kordero D. Hunter, a 21-year-old CSU student from the Chicago area, was shot in the chest shortly before 2 a.m. Friday following a dispute at the A List Lounge, 212 S. Ludlow St. He died at a local hospital.
Police have issued an arrest warrant for Jason Dashaun Shern, 30, in Hunter’s slaying.
The club was hosting a college night, and Hunter was among two busloads of CSU students at the club, police said. Investigators estimate 300 people were in the club, which has a legal maximum occupancy of 99.
“These are the types of events that often end in disorder and problems,” Police Chief Richard Biehl said.
An hour later, police received another shooting call related to an argument that started at Hammerjax club on East Fourth Street. One person was shot. His injuries are not life-threatening, police said.
Both clubs — the A List, 212 S. Ludlow St., and Hammerjax, 111 E. Fourth St., – were holding promotions. Both bars were packed, something that troubled Dayton Police Chief Biehl.
In 2009, the police department implemented a free Safe Bars program to help bar owners and employees prevent violence in and around their establishments. In its first year, the program was credited with cutting aggravated assaults associated with downtown and Oregon District bars nearly in half, from 30 in 2008 to 16 in 2009.
“Bars that have followed the (Safe Bar) practices rarely have a problem,” Biehl said. Police officials said Hammerjax personnel has never attended a Safe Bars program, and A List, while attending, never implemented any of the practices.
One of those practices is to alert police whenever an establishment is holding a promotion. Neither club told police of their plans for Thursday night promotions. An alert would have triggered a greater police presence, police administrators said.
Biehl said police are gathering information on police calls to both bars and will present their findings to the city law department. The law department will consider whether to seek a court order declaring either or both bars as public nuisances. If declared a public nuisance, the club would be padlocked for one year, which in most cases means it will be out of business.
“We’ve had no cooperation from A List or Hammerjax to prevent these kind of problems,” Biehl said.
At least two charter buses brought Central State University students from Wilberforce to the A List for a college night promotion that featured a DJ. Police estimated from pictures taken prior to the gunfire that more than 300 people were crammed into the club. The club’s legal occupancy limit is 99.
Kordero D. Hunter, 21, of the Chicago area, was in the bar when a disturbance broke out. The owner escorted some of the people involved in the argument outside the club. He told police that as he was escorting one man out he saw a young woman hand a firearm to another man already ejected from the club. The man fired the gun at the front window of the club.
Hunter, a Central State junior, was shot once in the chest. He died two hours later while at Miami Valley Hospital. Hunter was a defensive back for the CSU football team.
One of the bullets hit another male CSU student in the neck. A female student was struck in the arm by flying glass, and 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 other CSU student remained at the hospital Friday night.
Late Friday afternoon, police announced they were searching for Jason Dashaun Shern, 30, in connection with the A List shootings. Police Chief Richard Biehl said Shern is a gang member well-known to police.
Shern was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon in January of 2001. He was sentenced to two years in prison in 2001 for a possession of crack cocaine conviction and six months in prison for a possession of heroin conviction in 2004.
Local and federal fugitive task forces were searching for Shern Friday night.
The other shooting occurred before 3 a.m., police arrived in the 100 block of North Jefferson Street. There they found one man shot in the leg. His injuries were not life-threatening.
Police believe that shooting was the result of an argument inside Hammerjax. According to the police report, the argument started when one woman bumped into another on the crowded dance floor.
Witnesses said the argument continued through the evening and into the early morning hours until it reached the point where bar security escorted both women and their friends out of the club.
One group left by car and stopped in the 100 block of north Jefferson when a wheelchair belonging to one of them fell out of the trunk. As they were recovering the wheelchair, a second car carrying the other group in the dispute pulled up and the argument continued. A woman in the second car shouted she was calling her brother to settle the matter. The brother showed up after a minute or two in a third car.
According to witnesses, the brother opened fire, wounding the victim. A stray bullet also grazed the pants leg of a downtown resident who witnessed the shooting. The brother and the second car fled the scene. Police have identified a person of interest in the shooting, Biehl said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2290 or dpage@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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