Ten people were shot while they were coming out of the Deja Vu nightclub on Hamilton Street in Allentown on June 20.
Allentown police described it as one of the worst mass shootings in Lehigh Valley in recent times and Capt. Bill Lake said that most of the victims had just come out of the nightclub or were standing on the sidewalk when the shooting happened on Thursday.
All the victims were in hospital as of Thursday and everyone was expected to survive.
CBS Philly reported that the District Attorney’s office believes that at least three shooters were at the scene and that the shooting might be linked to gang violence.
Police didn’t provide any further information about the gunmen and the investigations are still on and no arrests have yet been made.
U.S. Rep. Susan Wild said she was “horrified” by the shooting. “Horrified at the news of a shooting in Allentown overnight. Thankfully, there have been no fatalities. I’m keeping a close eye on the situation and praying for the victims in the hospital,” she wrote on Twitter.
Witnesses Describe the Scene
Allentown Rescue Mission, a charity that works with homeless people is located just a few doors away from the Deja Vu nightclub.The shelter is helping the police as it has video cameras that captured the shooting. This is not the first incidence of violence at the location, and the shelter’s managing director Dean Browning told The Morning Call that the neighborhood has increasingly become unsafe for its staff and clients.
“I wish it weren’t like this, but this is the way our society is changing,” Browning said.
“It’s one of those unfortunate situations, but this is where we are, and we just have to hope for the best that people change.”
Shelter resident James Saunders said that people in the shelter have become used to violence in the area. He said he slept through the shooting but later witnessed police retrieving blood-soaked shirts from the dumpster.
A neighbor of the nightclub who wanted to remain anonymous due to fear of reprisal told The Morning Call that she witnessed the commotion from her window.
She said she saw people taking cover behind cars, friends helping victims, and that police and ambulances arrived before dispatchers had answered her own 911 call.
“EMS drivers didn’t know where to start, people were everywhere ... People were screaming ‘that [expletive] started shooting,’” she told The Morning Call.
Another neighbor, Tashana Santiago, said she woke up to the sounds of the gunshots. “When everything went silent all you could hear is the screaming and panicking,” Santiago told The Morning Call. “All I could think was someone is dying.”
No arrests have been made according to CBS Philly.
