3 people have died and 11 have been injured in a mass shooting incident which took place at the Chicago Pizza restaurant situated in the Jacksonville Landing complex at Jacksonville, Florida. The incident is reported to have happened around 1.30pm local time as police responded to reports of an “active shooter”.
The gunman was said to have been knocked out of the Madden NFL 2019 Tournament which was underway inside the complex. He then went home to retrieve a gun and returned to the tournament where he opened fire on unsuspecting participants.
In a chilling video posted by Global News, the start of the shooting is captured on a participant’s livestream on popular streaming platform Twitch. In the video, gameplay is shown, but then a controller disconnects, halting the game as shots ring out before the stream ends.
See the video below (viewer discretion is advised):
His victims have been named by friends online as married dad Taylor ‘SpotMePlzzz’ Robertson, 27, and Eli ‘Trueboy’ Clayton, 22, a rising star of gaming (pictured below). Drini Gjoka, who won the tournament last year, was among the injured.
The perpetrator is believed to be David Katz, 24, who reportedly used the gamer monikers “Ravenschamp” and “Bread”, and it seems he used a laser to assist his aim in the shooting and is said to have been acting “weird” at the tournament and wore the same clothes two days running. Katz killed 2 and injured 11 others before turning the gun on himself.
The mother of gamer Larry Legend confirmed her 25-year-old son had been shot three times and writing on Twitter, Sujeil Lopez said he was shot in the chest, thigh and hand and asked fans to keep him in their prayers.
Drini Gjoka tweet said:
I am literally so lucky. The bullet hit my thumb
— Drini Gjoka (@YoungDrini) 26 August 2018
Madden NFL 2019 released last week for PS4, Xbox One and PC, which is the latest of one of the most popular video game franchises in the US, and since it was first produced in 1990 has sold more than 130 million copies generating $4 billion in sales.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those affected.