During a birthday celebration for an off-duty police officer, things got out of hand and escalated into a shooting that killed three people in an Ohio nightclub over the weekend.
An argument erupted and a man, now known as Igmidio Mista, punched the officer’s wife, relatives said.
The man just opened fire shooting and killing 26-year-old Elmore police Officer Jose Andy Chavez, 28-year-old bartender Ramiro Sanchez, and a 25-year-old customer, Daniel Ramirez.
A fourth man shot at the bar, 25-year-old Ramiro Arreola, was taken to a hospital with injuries believed to be non-life-threatening.
“My nephews jumped on this guy,” Manuel Chavez told the Sandusky Register.
“A little scuffle broke out, he felt he needed to pull a gun out,” Arreola told The News-Messenger. “Just started shooting everybody, innocent bystanders.”
Police arrested the shooter, identified as 33-year-old Igmidio Mista of Fremont, on Monday morning and charged him with opening fire inside the Last Call Bar early Sunday. In addition, a warrant issued just hours before the arrest charged Mista with three counts of murder.
Officers found Mista at a home in Fremont, police said. He came to the door after a relative had met the officers, and he was taken into custody without incident, police Chief Tim Wiersma said.
The officer and his wife have two young children. He had been with the Elmore Police Department for more than two years and was an “exemplary” officer, Sgt. Jeffrey Harrison said in a statement.
A Judge ordered Mista be held without bond, as City Prosecutor Jim Melle called the shooter a flight risk, explaining that he has used relatives to hide from authorities in the past, and is not a U.S. citizen.
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