Confusion surrounds nightclub shootings

Details reported by almost 300 witnesses vary.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Members of heavy metal band Damageplan saw little of a shooting rampage at their concert as they hid and ran for cover after their guitarist was killed on stage, according to their newly released interviews with police.
Nathan Gale killed four people, including guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, at the December concert by Damageplan before a Columbus police officer shot Gale in the head from 20 feet away, killing him.
Nearly 300 witness interviews reviewed by The Columbus Dispatch showed people were confused about the sequence of the shootings, and the man Gale held hostage didn't hear the officer's shotgun blast that killed Gale.
Abbott used to be in the Grammy-nominated band Pantera, which broke up. Gale's mother has said her son was obsessed with Pantera and believed the band had stolen song lyrics from him. Police said he had a Damageplan CD in the car he drove to the concert.
The summaries of interviews with concertgoers, band members, club employees, police and paramedics are part of a 627-page investigation report that police released.
Piecing memories together
In that report, Christopher Paluska, Damageplan's tour manager, said he was shot first. Most witnesses said Abbott was the first victim and that Gale didn't pull out his 9 mm handgun until he was on the stage.
Paluska said, though, that he tried to prevent Gale from getting on stage and was shot. He was helped to the side of the stage, where he watched Gale shoot Abbott in the head three times.
Paluska was one of three people shot who survived. Another, stage technician John Brooks, wrestled with Gale who pinned him as a hostage as police moved toward the stage.
Brooks told investigators that although he didn't hear officer James Niggemeyer fire at Gale, he felt the 25-year-old's grip weaken and hurried off the stage.
A grand jury cleared Niggemeyer of any wrongdoing in May.
After Abbott was shot, his brother, Damageplan drummer Vincent Abbott, hid behind some amplifiers then ran out the back door when Gale was reloading his gun.
Lead singer Patrick Lachman jumped with the microphone in his hand and screamed for someone to call police.
Concertgoer Allison Henthorn said she watched Gale scale the fence on the club's patio. Three other people at the concert helped him when he got about halfway up. He hurried past a security guard who told him he couldn't enter without a ticket.
Gale had told his mother and a former employer that he was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic before he was discharged from the Marines in October 2003, two years into a four-year stint. Military records do not mention mental illness as the reason for the discharge.