From CNN.com

COLUMBUS, Ohio (CNN) -- A gunman opened fire Wednesday night during a heavy metal concert in Columbus, killing four people -- including at least one member of the band -- and critically wounding at least two others before a police officer shot and killed him, according to Columbus police.

The attacker leapt onstage as the group, Damageplan, performed, and began "targeting members in the band," Sgt. Brent Mull said.

Two others were injured in the incident, although the nature of their injuries was not clear.

According to eyewitness accounts, the gunman initially shot and killed the band's guitarist, Dimebag Darrell. Darrell, 38, and his brother, Vinnie Paul, 40, are former members of Pantera -- a group they formed in the 1980s. Their father is Jerry Abbott, a country and western songwriter and producer.

Police were notified of the shooting at the Alrosa Villa nightclub on the city's north end around 10:18 p.m. ET, Mull said. A uniformed police officer who was in the area slipped into the venue from a back entrance, confronted the gunman during the rampage and killed him.

"If not for the officer who showed up, there would have been more dead," Mull said.

Police have roped off a huge area of the nightclub's parking lot, as 60 detectives question hundreds of witnesses. Police have brought in buses to keep the witnesses warm as they wait to be questioned.

Calvin Bota said he saw the shooting from the mosh pit right in front of the stage, shortly after the band began playing.

"Somebody came -- I don't know where they came from, out of the audience or whatnot -- but they come onto (the) stage and ... he shot the guitarist at first, fired a couple of other shots and then he hid behind the stage a little bit," Bota told WSYX.

"Everybody started scattering, you know, there's mayhem everywhere. And then a police officer came into the building, you know, came in professional with his gun raised and then he proceeded to shoot the guy."

Gerald Caudill told WSYX the gunman shot the guitarist at least four times.

"I was up close to the stage and I just saw some guy run up on the side of the stage and I heard some shots and I saw (drummer) Vinnie Paul and somebody jumped on top of Vinnie, and the guy just stayed around the stage and started shooting other people," Caudill said.

"I saw wounded people all over the place, out in the parking lot, inside," he said. "It just didn't sound like gunshots or anything, it didn't occur to me that something like that was happening."

CNN Producer Steve Brusk in Columbus contributed to this report.
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I know hardly anyone on this forum is going to care, but alas, Pantera has been one of my favorite bands for the last 10 or 11 years. He was a guitar legend and the music world has lost another true giant.

[Edited 12/9/04 0:08am]

horrible news this is sad and i am in disbelief that someone would do this.

MotoPsycho

Many thanks for posting this information. I just heard this news on Kerrang Radio here in the UK and I am shocked. Yeah, there may not be many of us Pantera fans on the Org, but there are a few of us, fear not!


What shocked me the most was the fact that it happened ON STAGE DURING A SHOW


Much respect goes to the man behind some HUGE riffs!

I will be cracking open a beer and cranking up my fave Pantera riffs when I get a chance, and I suggest you do the same.

RocknRollDave said:

You're welcome. It's nice to know there are other Pantera fans that cruise the org.

Well, I skipped the beer, but I threw in a Pantera DVD just a little while ago and Vulgar Display Of Power will be on a loop 2morrow.

purplesmoke said:

I can't imagine what it was like for the fans who were there.. or for Dimebag's brother, who is the drummer and had to see this happen.

This is unfuckingbelievable!



I've always loved Pantera, especially Dimebag-such a great guitar player.

Loved his band(s), fans, the guy was bad ass.

Those guys made Dallas a large part of what it is too with the music scene.

This is a sad, sad day for lovers of screaming guitar solos, great riffs and just bad ass attitude.

Incredible player, great guy-no one, famous or not deserves that fate.

MotoPsycho said:










[Edited 12/9/04 1:41am]

Far Beyond Driven is on indefinite repeat right now-with every other album to come.

subhuman09 said:

I'm watching the Vulgar Videos From Hell on DVD right now and it's just so sad to watch. I haven't felt this way about a musician's death since Layne of Alice in Chains. Even then, it wasn't as shocking.

MotoPsycho said:

With Layne there was at least some anticipation since it sadly happened over the years.

Don't wish this fate on anyone (Layne didn't deserve his fate either), but I've got that DVD and I damn sure will be playing that soon.

I've got Planet Caravan on infinite repeat at the moment.

This is too fucked for words.

No telling what the motive was-some pissed off fan or some Phil groupie that took the words too hard, or fuck I hope it's not somehow something with drugs.

Drugs and guns-fucking up your society one artist at a time.

subhuman09 said:

Planet Caravan and Cemetary Gates. <3 Songs are never gonna be the same.

At least he's safe now. And the guy who shot him got what was coming to him, quickly.

Well said, both of you.

Co-sign all of the above.

MotoPsycho said:

I'm glad the police acted quickly in that situation-looks like the story's on the news outlets now, national that is.

Being tastefully done so far-but who knows what'll happen beyond that.

Not a fan of the news media in the slightest.

Those two songs take on so much more meaning now-beautiful still.

I'm reading rumors online that it's a crazy fan pissed at the breakup of Pantera, but as always, I'm treating those as just rumors-witness on TV are saying the guy was screaming at Dimebag-but no idea yet what exactly he was saying.

subhuman09 said:

It would have been nice if Kerrang! Radio could have played even a snippet of Walk or something, but no... Still, they dug out an interview with him at Download from earlier this year.

Incidentally, I never got to see Pantera, but I DID see Damageplan at Download and all I can say is that you have never seen a rock crowd go apeshit unless you saw the response to Walk. (Hats off to the non-Pantera guys in Damageplan too for indulging us in a Pantera song.)

RocknRollDave said:

Dime gave 190% in Pantera or Damageplan either, you could tell he lived and breathed the music.

Walk alone fucking owns.

I loved reading his column in Guitar World back in the 90's-you know he's a good 'ol boy in ways, laid back cat, but damn that guy could play.

I'm from Dallas, TX so it hits even more hard on that level-those guys made me appreciate this place when it didn't really feel like home for many years.

Grew up with Pantera from the start-never had the chance to see them live other than the DVD sadly, but even on DVD-those guys play like you're there.

Hell-no one has Dime's sound still, and you can tell they're looking for it.

I'd expect us talking about it and seeing other fans' posts online will be the best discussion and showing appreciation to the man because let's face it-it's either a footnote in the newscast to the news media or it isn't a rap thing so they can't exploit it.

It's metal-and metal doesn't equal ratings to them, so he won't get the respect he deserves.

Zakk Wylde's site is showing some great respect on their homepage if you check it out:

www.zakkwylde.com

Again Sub, I couldn't agree more. I remember thinking this morning that if it had been some c-list rapper no one had heard of it would have been major news on BBC Radio, yet it was our one-and-only "Rock" station (and that's at a push) that mentioned it.

I will check out the Zakk Wylde link right now, I appreciate the link.
Funnily enough, Wylde was one of the first people who came to mind when I heard the news,cos I know how close they were. At least someone out there has the f*cking decency to show some respect.

RocknRollDave said:

You couldn't be more right-the radio barely plays metal as it is anymore so what do you expect for the media not to show the respect he deserves.

Although I am really really pleased to see that the local ABC station just ran some history and a picture mentioning that he grew in Dallas, and that he was born here and some history of his dad even.

Hopefully more people will do that, but who knows-I'm just glad he's getting respect for being a hometown boy like he should.

Zakk's bad ass in his own right, definitely. No nonsense kinda guy either.

Hell-he's such a great guitar player-I downloaded this beautiful version of "White Christmas" (from Merry Axemas, Volume 2) via iTunes that's Zakk on acoustic-but man, if you've never heard him outside of his stuff with Ozzy or solo work, it really takes your breath away.

subhuman09 said:

I saw you mention Zakk's White Christmas on another thread. I thought it was a joke I will def check it out though!

RocknRollDave said:

I wondered what it'd be like when I saw that-had no clue, but it really is great.

You wouldn't expect that to sound like Zakk, I'll say that much.

Definitely worth checking out.

Hell, am I right in thinking it was the same day the Lennon got shot?


Freaky ain't the word...




From a purely selfish point of view, it makes my Download Festival memories more special, and not fogetting this was the one where Lars Ulrich was sick and Dave Lombardo from Slayer and Joey from Slipknot drummed for Metallica instead, so it was pretty damn unique already

RocknRollDave said:

I heard about that-I'm a big Metallica fan (moreso back in the day)-wish I could've seen that.

James is the reason I picked up a guitar in the first place-and Dime definitely added some heavy influence, but James is the main reason.

Saw Metallica in 97-I'm in the Cunning Stunts DVD actually. I was front row, right in front of James-was so incredible.



(I doubt a Pantera gig would've so much more insane...)

subhuman09 said:

YOU ARE ON THE CUNNING STUNTS DVD?! WHICH PART?! I GOTTA LOOK OUT FOR YOU MAN!!
[Edited 12/9/04 3:33am]

RocknRollDave said:

I was at the May 9th show in Ft. Worth (about 30 minutes from Dallas).

I'm in it during Seek and Destroy-James yells it then you see the camera behind the crowd and my fist is in the air to it and you see side of my face and glasses.

The local news is doing such a great job with the reporting on Dimebag's passing.

Really tasteful-mentioning the fact that Vinnie and Dime wrote the Dallas Stars (hockey) theme, his dad's country career-these guys are great.

They really seem to handle things well-very tasteful.

this is unbelievable

I used to read Dime's lessons in Guitar World back in the day and practise along to 'em

dammit

Rowdy said:

Me too, man.

Me too.

subhuman09 said:

James is an undervalued guitar player. His slow, melodic solos on Master of Puppets (the song) and Nothing Else Matters are superb.


Glad you said James and not Krap Hammett...(man, I HATE Kirk's playing )

RocknRollDave said:

James-if you check out the A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica DVD alone-you see how much he does without people realizing.

Those great overdubs, he's such an amazing player-so many people wishes they could play rhythm guitar like James-that Hetfield crunch is just awesome.

His slower work as well-on acoustic he really shines too.

He really shines on "To Live Is to Die"

Give Kirk a whammy pedal and he makes a solo is pretty much how it works.

I loved how Dime incorporated the pedal into his playing, but it wasn't his whole deal.

He used it to make some unreal sounds-it was taking to another place.

Kirk just sounds like he's doing musical masturbation sometimes, and I really like the guy, I do-just sometimes it seems like he falls too hard on some old ways.

subhuman09 said:

James + Guitar = Quality


Kirk + Wah Wah + Guitar = "Will this do...?"


...erm, no Kirk, that will NOT do


Fast solos have their place and time, it's just that Kirk does it so badly

RocknRollDave said:

I'm very very biased when it comes to James-definitely.

Such a big part of my life-mainly when I first picked up the guitar when I was 12, I was with him how some of the uberfams are with Prince.

It's been nice over the years to see the more human side of the man-especially with Some Kind of Monster, which if you haven't seen, you must.

To be fair-Kirk's had some damn good moments-The Unforgiven solo alone takes that song to another place, and his solo at the end of Fade to Black adds some more tecture, but I gotta say I find his stuff on Load and Reload more interesting than the albums cause on the other albums it's just Kirk doing what Kirk does on pretty much every solo.

The Mighty Hetfield owns.

Fuck-I keep thinking now what it would've been like to have James, Dime, Dave Lombardo and Trujillo or Les Claypool on some magic side project.

Hell, I hope Dime and Cliff are jamming up there in heaven-put those guys together just imagine the stuff they could make.

subhuman09 said:

I have waited SO long for a Metallica fan to agree with me about James' playing!! YAHOO!!

I thought it was just ME who liked Load and Reload too

Lombardo, Hetfield and Dime in one band.....They would have DESTROYED places with that combo! Good call!