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CINCINNATI – "The genie of the water", with outstretched arms, presided on Thursday evening above a square of the fountain empty of everything except flowers and police tape.
A few hours earlier, downtown had been marked by a blur of screams and sirens and bullet holes in the window. In the coming hours, a candlelight vigil could bring her back to the community center that most Cincinnatians recognize. But Thursday was completed on Friday, it was dark, hot and silent.
Fifth Third Center, surrounded by yellow ribbon, became the site of the first shoot of downtown in 2018.
Four people died in minutes. One of them was an armed man, Omar Santa-Perez, whose witness said he was entering the hall around 9 am and opened fire on innocent people with a handgun of 9 mm before the officers fired and killed.
The witness, who was coming out of an elevator when he spotted the shooter, jumped in and heard bullets hit the elevator door as it closed.
The other three were men who lived and worked nearby. Two other victims survived and were hospitalized at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center overnight.
The incident left Hoxworth Blood Center asking for donations and the owners of Fifth Third Bank sought public support following a staggering tragedy.
Here's what we know about filming at Fifth Third Center:
1. The shooter was Omar Santa-Perez
Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac identified the gunman as 29-year-old Santa-Perez, who had been living in the North Bend area for at least 2015. In a press conference, Isaac suggested: involved here. "
A few months before the shoot, Santa-Perez filed two lawsuits against NBC Universal and TD Ameritrade, alleging – apparently without any evidence or factual support – that the two companies had conspired to steal her personal information and broadcast it on MSNBC. A magistrate who recommended the dismissal of the second action described it as "disjointed, difficult to decipher and delusional".
Santa-Perez was armed with a semi-automatic Taurus 9 mm handgun; he had more than 200 rounds of ammunition in a briefcase.
Isaac said he had bought the gun legally at Point Blank on the West Side, but Isaac was not sure where Santa-Perez had bought more than 200 rounds.
On Friday afternoon, investigators had not yet determined the motive for the attack, but authorities began investigating his home in North Bend soon after Thursday's shootings. The neighbors said that they were amazed to learn what he had done.
2. The gunman entered the hall through the side door
Santa-Perez entered the hall of the fifth center by a side door near Potbelly. The authorities initially thought that he had first entered the loading dock area, but Isaac said Friday at a press conference that he was not in charge. 39, had not entered this area.
Santa-Perez shot his first shot at 9:06. He fired 34 times more passers-by and police over the next four minutes and 28 seconds.
No officer was injured.
Here is a timeline of the shoot:
- 9:07 – The officer calls to shoot
- 9:08 – Active shooter on the first floor
- 9:11 am – Suspicious inside the building
- 9:13 – The officer reports the scene of the victims
- 9:13 am – An officer found survivors in the closet
3. Police killed the suspect
A police officer in Cincinnati shot the gunman, said Mayor John Cranley at a press briefing shortly after the shot.
Cranley said the officers responded "within seconds" of the shot.
Officer Jennifer Chilton, Officer Antonio Etter, Officer Eric Kaminsky and Police Specialist Gregory Toyeas participated in a shootout with Santa Perez.
The authorities fired 11 rounds in total, said Isaac, but it is not yet known which police officer hit Santa-Perez.
"It's heartbreaking," Cranley said. "This is not normal, and this should not be considered normal.It is abnormal.No other industrialized country has this level of multiple filming active on a regular basis … I think that there is something deeply sick at work and we as a country have to face it. "
4. The shooter killed three men before the police killed him
Richard Newcomer, an employee of Gilbane Building Company in Rhode Island, was the first publicly identified after his death. The newcomer, aged 64, had been assigned to a project on the third floor of the fifth center.
Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco identified the other two as Pruthvi Raj Kandepi, 25, and Luis Felipe Calderón, 48.
One of the surviving victims was in critical condition at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center on Friday night; The other victim, Whitney Austin, was in good condition.
5. Whitney Austin, one of the surviving victims, is vice president of the fifth bank
The vice president and chief credit officer of Fifth Third Bank was shot dead 12 times in Thursday's downtown shootout, her husband said.
Whitney Austin is currently undergoing surgery at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Her husband, Waller Austin, said he hoped she would recover completely.
"We are not yet emotionally ready for interviews," said Waller Austin, "but Whitney will have many points to address once she will be able to distance herself from the immediate trauma of Thursday's incident." ".
6. Shooter is not a former or current employee of Fifth Third Bank
Lt. Steve Saunders stated that Santa-Perez was not a former or current employee of Fifth Third Bank.
According to Lt. Dave Daugherty, Hamilton County MPs began searching the home of the center's fifth gunman on Thursday.
Authorities have taped several buildings on Miami Avenue near Brower Road in North Bend.
7. People nearby hid, fears for their lives
Janetta Cook said she heard gunshots that "never stopped" while she was working at Servatti on Fountain Square. She locked the doors and barricaded herself in the bathroom of the store with her colleague, Michele Parks.
Cook thought of her son at home while she was crouching in the bathroom, fearing the gunman would find her.
"We were really close and all that went through my head was," They come, they come for us, "said Cook." The blows have come closer and closer together, and that's all you can think: "I'm next, I'm next, I'm next."
Parks said the gunshots sounded so close that they seemed to go through the walls of the store.
"There was nowhere we could go," Parks said. "The only thing we could do was protect one another, go to the bathroom and pray that everything was fine."
8. A video shows the security guard passing by, an aimless shooter
Police in Cincinnati on Friday released a video camera and surveillance camera showing that Santa-Perez is wreaking havoc in the building.
He paced the fifth center with his rifle fired and shot anyone in sight. A briefcase was attached to the front of his body.
Surveillance footage from inside the building shows a man who appeared to have fallen to the ground. An unarmed security guard takes the man, protects him from his body and hides him. Milliseconds later, Santa-Perez manages to cross the window because he does not see them.
Something I want to emphasize: This unarmed security officer protected a man with his body and made him hide. MILLISECONDS later, the shooter passes and goes through the glass because he did not see them. This security guard saved the life of this man https://t.co/ubXobzCjHg @WCPO pic.twitter.com/X5LDGw4u7w
– Abby Anstead (@AbbyAnstead) September 7, 2018
The Cincinnati police fired on the outside of Santa Perez through the glass facade of the building.
9. Cincinnati Public School students were inside the building
Seven members of a Cincinnati public school program working in Fifth Center are safe, said a SPC official.
According to Lauren Worley, spokeswoman for the CPS, the students were locked up with their instructors.
The program, called the SEARCH Project, offers internships for students over the age of 18 with special needs, Worley said.
According to its website, the SEARCH High School Transition Program Transition Program is a one-year educational program for students with disabilities in their final year of high school. It is aimed at students whose main objective is a competitive job.
10. Police Chief: Tracking Protocol in terms of locking
Isaac said that Fifth Third Bank officials responded correctly to the lockout procedures.
"These are things we are seeing across the country, and we all need to be vigilant and ready to deal with these situations," said Isaac.
ATF spokespersons, Suzanne Dabkowski, said that officials in the fight against alcohol, tobacco and guns were on hand to sweep the building.
Isaac said investigators will conduct interviews, deal with the crime scene and review security images and body cameras in the coming days.
Fountain Square was closed to pedestrian traffic on Thursday and all events were canceled. The agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigations were on site and SWAT cleaned the building.
11. Governor Kasich mourns the victims
Ohio Governor John Kasich congratulated the Cincinnati police for the quick action they took to arrest the gunman and shared his personal grief over the deaths of the three victims.
"It's just a terrible and terrible situation," Kasich said Thursday morning at WCPO. "The Cincinnati security forces did a fantastic job in responding, I spoke to the mayor, all the people from my public security department have been in touch with the Cincinnati officials" to offer their support.
Kasich, who lost his parents suddenly in a tragic road accident in 1987, suffered with the families of the victims.
"It's just terrible." I'm meeting in New York with a rating agency on the strength of our state and I just walked in and said, "Hug, those you like" because you never know, will happen in this world today, "Kasich said.
"I could not even imagine the calls to send to relatives saying," This is what happened. "When this phone rings, you put yourself in their place, it's just a black black hole.
"So, we mourn the loss of life, we want to stand by those who have been injured and their families, what can you say, it's just a terrible and terrible situation."
Other officials made statements amidst the tragedy.
12. First shoot in downtown in 2018
Filming was the first to take place downtown in 2018, according to city data.
The latest fatal shooting reported in the Central Business District concerned a single victim and occurred on July 7, 2014, according to the city's open data portal. Filming took place on 8th Street and Garfield Place, just outside the main branch of the Cincinnati Library.
The map below shows shooting in the Central Business District since January 2014.
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