Jewish Video Gamer Kills 2 Before Turning Gun On Himself At Jacksonville Tournament
Source: Reuters – Forward.com
A professional video gamer from Baltimore is suspected of killing at least two people and wounded several others on Sunday when he opened fire at a video game tournament that was being streamed online from a restaurant in Jacksonville, Florida, police and local media said.
David Katz, 24, of Baltimore then turned the gun on himself. Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams declined to comment on what led to the third major mass shooting to hit Florida in the last two years.
Police swarmed home of Katz’s family in the tony Federal Hill neighborhood, near the Inner Harbor in downtown Baltimore.
Dozens of ambulances and police cars flooded into The Jacksonville Landing, a waterfront dining, entertainment and shopping site in the city’s downtown, after several shots rang out on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
The shooting took place during a regional qualifier for the Madden 19 online game tournament at the GLHF Game Bar inside a Chicago Pizza restaurant, according to the venue’s website.
The bar was livestreaming the football video game competition when the gunfire started, according to video of the stream shared on social media. In the video, players can be seen reacting to the shots and cries can be heard before the footage cuts off.
One Twitter user, Drini Gjoka, said he was taking part in the tournament and was shot in the thumb.
“Worst day of my life,” Gjoka wrote on Twitter. “I will never take anything for granted ever again. Life can be cut short in a second.”
Another gamer, Chris “Dubby” McFarland, was hospitalized after a bullet grazed his head. “I feel fine, just a scratch on my head. Traumatized and devastated,” he wrote on Twitter.
Katz, who often competed under the monikers Bread or MrSlicedBread, has competed in several video game tournaments.