Face of Nation : First there was the Ku Klux Klan rally in May. Just days later, ferocious tornadoes cut a deadly swath through the region. Then early Sunday morning came the latest tragedy to pull together this blue-collar city of 140,000.
A gunman killed at least nine people and injured 27 outside of Ned Peppers Bar on East Fifth Street, a corridor humming with lively restaurants and watering holes most nights.
Hours later, yellow caution tape blocked the street but failed to ward off people who had to see it for themselves: the scene of another mass shooting in America, this one coming less than 24 hours after one in El Paso, Texas.
The bloodshed fractured residents’ perception of the 12-block strip, what some call “little Bourbon Street” and where revelers can indulge in a stuffed burger at Blind Bob’s and dance the night away at Ned Peppers.
Two days before the twisters struck, the city braced for the threat of violence when nine members of the Ku Klux Klan held a rally downtown. The Klan was met by more than 500 counter-protesters. In the end, no one was arrested and no force was needed.
Cron, a Dayton native, remembered how businesses on Fifth Street banded together, papering their windows with signs that read, “You are not welcome here” and “Take your hatin’ out of Dayton.” “Down here, everyone comes together,” he said.
A man who said one of the victims, Thomas McNichols, 25, was his cousin, cried in front of television cameras blocks from the shooting as he pleaded for President Donald Trump to stop this from happening again. “I want the president to hear this: You can sit on Twitter all day, but you’re not here,” the man said. “Where are you at Donald Trump?”
At a vigil later Sunday night for the victims, a large crowd chanted, “Do something!” and “Make a change,” while Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine spoke. DeWine, a Republican, offered his condolences to the victims’ families. The mass shooting Saturday at a Walmart in El Paso, where a gunman killed 20 people and injured 26 others, was still fresh on the minds of many in Dayton that night.
Everything came to a halt when gunfire reverberated a block away, Horsley said. Terrified patrons huddled together, and the doors at The Trolley Stop were locked. Police who regularly patrol the Oregon District killed the gunman, identified as a 24-year-old white man, within minutes of the first shots being fired, authorities said. A motive remained unclear late Sunday, but one of the victims was his 22-year-old sister.
Most of the victims were in their 20s and 30s and had been shot as the gunman, clad in body armor and carrying 100-round capacity magazines, headed for Ned Peppers Bar, said Dayton Police Chief Richard S. Biehl.
Horsley, who returned to work Sunday, said she was grateful the police acted so quickly, calling the events of the past few months — from the Klan rally to the tornadoes to the mass shooting — a “triple whammy” for Dayton.
“It’s not been the best year for us,” Horsley said as she helped to pass out free cups of water and Styrofoam containers of chicken fried rice from her restaurant to police, firefighters and onlookers on the scene Sunday afternoon. A car radio blared R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts.” He returned to his native Dayton in 2003, raising children in the area and remarrying. “Dayton has had its ups and downs,” said Mcglothan, who works handling materials in a warehouse.
One of the “downs” has been its population decline since its heyday as a major manufacturing center and General Motors’ decision more than 10 years ago to shutter a plant in nearby Moraine. But Mcglothan said he is confident Dayton will bounce back after the shooting. While the victims’ memories must be honored, his “little Bourbon Street” will roar again when the time is appropriate, he said.
