By STEVEN SPEARS
Managing Editor
(WARRENSBURG, Mo., digitalBURG) – Two people were injured early Sunday morning in a shooting outside the Warehouse in downtown Warrensburg, and police are still looking for who fired the shots.
Rich Lockhart, Warrensburg police chief, said he and other officers were watching the downtown bars close when they heard gunshots at around 1:43 a.m.
A fight reportedly broke out inside the Warehouse, located at 112 W. Pine St., before moving outside. One of the men involved in the fight went to his car, retrieved a handgun, and returned to the Warehouse, according to a WPD Facebook post. The man fired several shots into the ground, according to the post.
Lockhart said when officers arrived at the Warehouse, the glass on one of the entrance doors was shattered and several shell casings were on the ground. He said officers went inside the building but couldn’t locate the source of the shooting or any victims.
“So we went back outside to work on restoring order to the street,” Lockhart said. “There were lots of fights broken out all up and down Pine Street.”
Lockhart said someone flagged him down and said his friend had been shot. Lockhart said he found Antoine M. Butler, of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, in the alley on the north side of Pine Street behind Fitter’s Pub. Butler had suffered a gunshot wound to his hand.
Lockhart said Butler was trying to help someone who was in a fight with Eugene G. Walls, of Kansas City, when he was injured. Walls was the other shooting victim.
“Antoine was trying to help the person Eugene was fighting,” Lockhart said. “As he was doing that, they both hear a gunshot go off and they both feel like they’ve been shot in the hand.”
Lockhart said Butler was transported to Western Missouri Medical Center by ambulance. He said Walls was driven to the hospital in a friend’s vehicle.
Lockhart said officers were unable to locate the shooter and witnesses were unable to provide a description.
“We’re not sure everyone is being forthright with us about the details of what happened,” he said. “We think some people may know more than what they’re saying – especially the two guys who got shot. That’s why we haven’t got a real good suspect description just yet.”
Anyone with information regarding the shooting is asked to call the WPD at 660-747-9133.