Omg!!!!!!!!!!

Reptscue · #1 (**permalink**) 12-09-2004, 01:12 PM

We have lost the best guitarist on the planet.

Quote:

Five Dead in Columbus, Ohio, Nightclub Shooting
Ex-Pantera Guitarist Dimebag Darrell Slain, TV Station Says

CHICAGO (Dec. 9) - A man opened fire on a heavy metal band during a performance at a crowded bar in Columbus, Ohio on Wednesday night, killing four people and wounding two others before he was killed by police, officials said.
The incident happened at the Alrosa Villa on the city's north side where about 200 patrons were on hand for a performance by Damageplan, according to Sgt. Brent Mull, spokesman for the Columbus police.

He said a man walked on stage and began shooting. A police officer called to the scene shot and killed the gunman, Mull said, and in so doing ''we believed he saved other lives.''

At least one band member was believed to be among the dead, he said. Two people who were wounded were taken to a hospital.

Mull said the motive for the shooting was not known.

The NBC television affiliate in Columbus, WCMH, reported that one of the dead was Damageplan guitarist Dimebag Darrell. It said the band was playing its first song in a set when the gunman ran on stage and began shooting. Some members of the audience initially thought the affair might have been part of the band's act, the station said.

Dimebag Darrell and his brother, drummer Vinnie Paul, were previously with Texan thrash metal band Pantera, which formed in the early 1980s.

That band topped the U.S. album charts with its 1994 release ''Far Beyond Driven,'' which also yielded a Grammy nomination. After the band's bitter break-up the brothers formed Damageplan with singer Pat Lachman and bassist Bob Zilla.

Damageplan's debut album, ''New Found Power'' -- hailed for its ''violent dissonance'' by Blender magazine -- hit No. 38 on the U.S. charts earlier this year.

This quote was from aol news.

I don't know how someone could be so sick!

lethargiic · #2 (**permalink**) 12-09-2004, 01:18 PM

There was a second band member that may have been shot/killed to but it hasnt been confirmed. one of the news reports from Real Rock 101.1 Orlando say when the gunman opened fire ppl saw vinnie paul fall over so they think he got shot too.. =(

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/09/nig...ing/index.html
This is the newslink from cnn.

my prayers n thoughts are with the families

Reptscue · #3 (**permalink**) 12-09-2004, 01:23 PM

Wow....
I did hear that there was a second victim on stage, but I heard it was the singer.
I just can't believe this. I am shaking as I try to type this.

lethargiic · #4 (**permalink**) 12-09-2004, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reptscue

Wow....
I did hear that there was a second victim on stage, but I heard it was the singer.
I just can't believe this. I am shaking as I try to type this.

*hugs*
I hate when things like this happen too. it scares me that this kind of thing happens anywhere. But guess we'll find out soon who the other person was.
I just wish we knew why this guy did this crap.

Reptscue · #5 (**permalink**) 12-09-2004, 01:46 PM

It's just crazy.
I know Darrell signed some new contracts with some "big heads". Maybe that has something to do with it.

I am in so much shock.

JuliusSqueezer · #6 (**permalink**) 12-09-2004, 02:10 PM

That's nuts! Why would anyone shoot Dimebag when there are so many boy bands still around?

Reptscue · #7 (**permalink**) 12-09-2004, 04:44 PM

I hear that Brett
Darrell Abbott was the best guitarist that I can think of.
Someone was saying on the radio that the guy was ranting about Pantera breaking up. I sure as heck hope that them breaking up wasn't the reason why he was shot.
I can't believe he is gone.

telefrag · #8 (**permalink**) 12-09-2004, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JuliusSqueezer

That's nuts! Why would anyone shoot Dimebag when there are so many boy bands still around?

have you ever met him?

I wouldnt be suprised if he just ticked off the wrong person.

thats if it even had anything to do with him and wasnt totally random, or just wrong place at the wrong time.

it is unfortunate, and its never cool when people go out like that.

Reptscue · #9 (**permalink**) 12-10-2004, 01:49 AM

Looks like the only one in the band that was killed was Dimebag.
(plus 3 others)

Quote:

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Dec. 9) - A gunman charged onstage at a nightclub and opened fire on the band and crowd, killing top heavy metal guitarist ''Dimebag'' Darrell Abbott and three other people before a police officer shot him to death, authorities said.
The gunman had a hostage in a headlock and appeared to be preparing to kill him when the officer hit him in the face with a rifle, a witness and police spokesman Sgt. Brent Mull said. The hostage escaped uninjured, Mull said.
Two other people were hospitalized. Police said one was in intensive care and the other was stable.
Police identified the gunman as Nathan Gale, 25, of Marysville, 25 miles northwest of Columbus. Police said they had no information on a motive or any connection to Abbott or his band, the Texas-based group Damageplan.
Damageplan had just begun its first song at Alrosa Villa club Wednesday night when the gunman climbed onstage, started yelling and shot Abbott five or six times at point-blank range, witness Chris Couch said.
Mull said the gunman's exact statement was unclear because of the loud music. He said some witnesses reported hearing an accusation about Abbott breaking up his former band, thrash-rock pioneer Pantera, but police could not confirm whether the speaker was the gunman or a fan.
Police believe there were earlier threats against the band, Mull said. He declined to give specifics.
Witnesses said the man, who was wearing a Columbus Blue Jackets hockey jersey over a hooded sweat shirt, jumped an 8-foot wooden fence and was being followed through the crowd by club security.
After firing on the guitarist, the gunman shot a bouncer who had pulled him off the musician, while fans surged toward the exit, said Couch, 22. The gunman then fired into the crowd of more than 250 people, Mull said.
Mull said Officer James D. Niggemeyer, patrolling nearby, arrived within two minutes of hearing the call. Niggemeyer, 31, saw one person lying dead and the suspect holding onto another ''pretty much in a headlock,'' Mull said.
He said the hostage, ''probably a fan, maybe someone who worked with the band,'' was able to maneuver out of the way before the officer fired.
Mull praised Niggemeyer's response.
''If the officer wasn't as close as he was, I think this would have been a lot worse,'' he said. ''It was a chaotic scene, just a horrific scene.''
Besides Abbott and Gale, police identified the dead as Nathan Bray, 23; Erin Halk, 29, and Jeff Thompson, 40.
Bray's family said the suburban Grove City man was a Damageplan fan. Halk worked for the club loading band equipment, said the club's lighting designer, Brian Kozicki. Thompson's last known address was in Texas, police said.
Couch said he believed the shooter had a plan. ''It was definitely a grudge. It was against something,'' he said.
Mull said he believed there was amateur video that officers could view for clues but that police had no answers yet. ''We may never know a motive for this, unless he left a note,'' Mull said.
Gale has a minor police record in Marysville, said Police Chief Floyd Golden. He was pulled over for driving with a suspended license last month.
The tall, physically imposing Gale hung out at Bears Den Tattoo Studio, staring at people and trying to get them to talk about music and bands, manager Lucas Bender said.
'He's not wanted,'' Bender said. ''The most pointless conversations.''
Thursday morning, a dozen yellow roses, still in plastic wrap, lay near the entry to the low-slung beige building that since 1974 has hosted mostly heavy metal acts with occasional hip-hop and rap shows. The 641-person-capacity club, just off a freeway exit on the city's north side, sits amid motels, small businesses and office complexes.
Dozens of messages were posted to the band's Web site after the shootings.
''This is the worst day in metal history,'' one posting read.
''The metal world feels your pain,'' another wrote.
Damageplan's debut album, ''New Found Power,'' which was released in February by Elektra, was produced by Abbott and his brother, drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott. Other band members are vocalist Patrick Lachman and bassist Bob Zilla.
Earlier, the brothers had been members of the Grammy-nominated Pantera, whose popularity soared in the early 1990s with a fast, aggressive sound.
''Damageplan carries on the tradition Pantera started, the ... #$%^&#$%^&#$%^&#$%^&-raising tradition we were all about,'' Vinnie Paul Abbott told The Dallas Morning News in October.
''It took awhile for some of the Pantera fans to accept it; we knew that was gonna be the case,'' he said. ''Change is something that people have a hard time accepting. But me and Dime intended on doing this our whole lives.''
The shootings came exactly 24 years after John Lennon was shot to death outside his New York apartment building by a deranged fan.
---

Associated Press writer Jay Jorden in Dallas contributed to this report.

12-09-04 1422EST

python04slayer · #10 (**permalink**) 12-10-2004, 02:52 AM

I saw this today and it made me pretty sad, may the Guitar God Dime rest in peace.

spinrb8 · #11 (**permalink**) 12-10-2004, 03:00 AM

man that freakin sucks!!!!!!!crazy freakin people

Reptscue · #12 (**permalink**) 12-11-2004, 01:42 AM

I still can't believe it.
Here is a good site
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/

pandora1985 · #13 (**permalink**) 12-11-2004, 02:15 AM

i've been hearing that the shooter was upset over the breakup.....but this doesnt make any sense...way to ruin the chance of a reunion

Reptscue · #14 (**permalink**) 12-11-2004, 04:14 AM

Newest release I have found...

Quote:

Ohio Club Shooter Obsessed With Band
(AP, 12/10/2004 8:11 PM)

By Jay Cohen

The man who shot former Pantera guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott and three other men to death at a nightclub was obsessed with the heavy metal band and made bizarre accusations against the group, a one-time friend said.

Nathan Gale apparently believed Pantera musicians were trying to steal his identity and the lyrics to songs he had written, former friend Jeramie Brey told The Columbus Dispatch in Friday's editions.

Gale, 25, charged the stage Wednesday at a show by Abbott's new band, Damageplan, and gunned down four people including Abbott before a police officer shot him to death. Two others were wounded.

Investigators said they may never know Gale's motive. Some witnesses said he yelled accusations that the influential heavy metal guitarist broke up Pantera, but police had not verified those reports.

Brey and former friend Dave Johnson said they had become frightened by Gale's behavior and distanced themselves from him several years ago. By that time, Johnson said, Gale had begun talking and laughing to himself and once appeared to be holding an imaginary dog.

"He used to be Pantera's No. 1 fan and has liked them for as long as I've known him," Johnson told the newspaper. "After a while something happened. He just kind of snapped. He went from being a cool guy to being a guy you didn't want to be around."

Johnson said he met Gale, known as Nate, in the late 1990s through a mutual friend in their hometown of Marysville, about 25 miles northwest of Columbus. They shared a love of rock music, held jam sessions and attended concerts together.

Brey recalled that Gale once showed up at his house with some songs he had written, but the words appeared to be copied from Pantera. Gale told Brey he planned to sue Pantera over the lyrics and for stealing his identity.

An imposing figure at 6-foot-3, Gale had made people uneasy at a Marysville tattoo parlor, staring and locking them into conversations about heavy metal music.

When he played offensive line for the semi-pro Lima Thunder football team, he psyched himself up before games by piping Pantera music into his headphones, coach Mark Green said.

"He seemed like a normal guy you would meet any other day," said Anthony Bundy, 20, who lived on the same block as Gale. "He was a keep-to-yourself type of person. He was real quiet."

Hours before the shootings, Gale got into an argument with a worker at the tattoo studio over some equipment he wanted the studio to order for him. He later angrily walked out of the shop.

The worker, Bo Toler, said he thought Gale had come to the tattoo parlor because he wanted somebody to hang out with. "I just thought he was quiet. I thought he had low-self esteem because of his thick glasses," Toler said.

Gale had had minor run-ins with police since 1997 but wasn't considered a troublemaker, authorities said.

He served in the Marines in North Carolina until November 2003, when he was discharged after less than half of the typical four-year stint, Marine spokeswoman Gunnery Sgt. Kristine Scarber said. She declined to explain the discharge, citing privacy rules.

Gale's mother, Mary Clark, did not return phone messages seeking comment.

The violence at the Alrosa Villa club came just after the opening chords by Texas-based Damageplan, the band formed by Abbott and his brother, drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott, after they left Pantera. Gale dodged two band members, grabbed Darrell Abbott and shot him at least five times in the head, witnesses and police said.

In less than five minutes, Gale had also killed Erin Halk, 29, a club employee who loaded band equipment; fan Nathan Bray, 23; and band bodyguard Jeff Thompson, 40.

The band's drum technician, John Brooks, was released from Riverside Hospital on Friday, said Sgt. Mark Allen of hospital security. Tour manager Chris Paluska was in stable condition.

Vinnie Paul Abbott thanked fans for their support in a statement the band released Friday.

"With all his greatness and accomplishments on the guitar, DIME will be missed more for his giving personality, charisma, caring for others, love and most of all his HEART!! Twice as big as the state of TEXAS!!!!!!!!!!!!," Abbott said.

http://launch.yahoo.com/read/news.asp?contentID=220481

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