CENTRAL OHIO Nightclub attack kills guitarist, 3 others; officer kills gunman

Authorities said they may never know the motive.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- It seemed like something out of a music video:
The lights dimmed, the heavy-metal rock group played its first notes, then a man from the crowd ran the length of the stage, dodging two band members, and shot guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott at least five times in the head.
In less than five minutes, three others were killed along with the gunman, shot by an officer who had been on patrol nearby. Two people were hospitalized.
Police say they might never know the motive.
"He grabbed Dimebag with one hand and shot him with the other," said Kevin Minerd, a fan who was among the 500 people packed into the smoke-filled nightclub Wednesday to see Abbott's new band, Damageplan.
Others at the Alrosa Villa club at first thought the gunman was a fan or that the shootings were part of the show.
"I almost thought it was a joke. I thought it was a stage show," said Joe Dameron, the bass player for an opening act who was watching Damageplan from onstage.
Then people were jumping on the stage and Dameron ran, as the lighting director ducked under his table and a tide of fans rushed for the doors.
"I think he knew he wasn't going to get out and he was going to take down as many people as he could," said Brian Kozicki, the club's lighting designer.
Vinnie Paul Abbott, drummer for the Texas-based band Damageplan, was rushed to safety offstage and tearfully tried to learn his 38-year-old brother's fate from officers who couldn't even tell him which hospital he was taken to.
Police identified the suspect as Nathan Gale, 25, of Marysville, 25 miles northwest of Columbus. Gale listened to the Abbotts' former band, Pantera, on headphones to psyche himself up before football games. He often would hang out at a tattoo parlor and make a pest of himself by talking to customers about music.
Also killed were Erin Halk, 29, a club employee who loaded band equipment; fan Nathan Bray, 23, of nearby Grove City; and Jeffery Thompson, 40, whose last known address was in Texas.
Sgt. Brent Mull said police had not verified reports from some witnesses that the gunman was yelling accusations about Darrell Abbott breaking up the thrash-rock pioneer Pantera.
Mull said police believe there were earlier threats against the band, but he declined to give specifics.
'He just shot again'
Lines were deep at the Alrosa Villa -- a popular venue for heavy metal for 30 years -- to buy T-shirts for Damageplan, the new band the Abbott brothers formed after leaving the Grammy-nominated Pantera.
The brothers produced Damageplan's debut album, "New Found Power," which was released in February by Elektra. Other band members are vocalist Patrick Lachman and bassist Bob Zilla.
The brothers had said they would still play some old songs and pledged to keep up Pantera's frenetic, ear-shattering, "hell-raising" style. The band's popularity had soared in the early 1990s with a fast, aggressive sound.
As the lights dimmed Wednesday, club security were chasing a man in a Columbus Blue Jackets hockey jersey over a hooded sweat shirt but couldn't reach him in the dense crowd. Some patrons said the tall, heavyset man jumped the 8-foot wooden fence around an adjoining patio; others said he must have come from an open door behind the stage.
The club has no metal detectors and employs unarmed security guards.
The man climbed onstage, as many Alrosa revelers do.
"I figured it was another fan wanting to jump off the stage and crowd surf," Kozicki said.
Then he pulled out a silver pistol.
"At first we thought it was a hoax and then when he fired again we knew it was real," said Jeremy Spencer, 16, who on Thursday morning still had his $8 ticket to the all-ages show in his baggy jeans pocket.
Kozicki brought up the bright fluorescent house lights and ducked under his control table, calling 911 from his cell phone.
Several calls followed, with one caller saying: "He's on stage right now. He's got a gun. ... He just shot again."
As the guitar fell from Abbott's hand, the earsplitting feedback let Eric McGuire know something was wrong. The 31-year-old is the guitarist for opening act Volume Dealer.
Kozicki peeked from his table to see the gunman holding a man in a headlock, as he stood at the far right of the stage between a stack of amplifiers and a control board for the band's monitors.
Police said the man appeared ready to shoot the hostage, who managed to duck just enough for Officer James D. Niggemeyer to take aim with his shotgun.
Remembered by fans
In the chaos, Kozicki had his arm around the crying Vinnie Abbott.
"He just kept saying he wanted to know how his brother is," he said.
All day Thursday, fans left flowers and containers of beer by a boulder at the parking lot entrance, including a bottle of Rogue "Dead Guy Ale" and a six-pack of Heineken with a marijuana bud tucked into the cardboard case.
Gale has a minor police record in Marysville, including driving with a suspended license last month, said Police Chief Floyd Golden.
Abbott was remembered as a regular guy by fans outside his home in Dalworthington Gardens, an affluent suburb near Dallas.
"He didn't have his nose in the air. I think he'll be remembered forever," said Adam Darnell, 22.