EPD seeks witnesses after six injured in downtown mass shooting

UPDATE (Jan. 18, 2022): All victims are in stable condition and/or have been treated and released. The victims of the shooting are as follows:

• Richard Daniel Lemmon, 26, Pendleton
• Jason Jamell Smith, 25, San Francisco
• Aaleigha Mechelle Tynan, 25, Eugene
• Reyshaun Dominic-Joseph Supuni, 30, Pendleton
• Tristin C. Vanblockland, 26, Pendleton
• Priscila Wavaline Camarena, 21, Pendleton

Eugene Police detectives do not have enough information to determine whether the shooting was random or targeted to individuals or a group. Eugene Police detectives express appreciation to the witnesses who have already provided information, and encourage other witnesses who have not already called the Tip Line to do so: 541-682-5162.

Audio

Six people were injured, including one in critical condition, after a mass shooting in downtown Eugene. Police Chief Chris Skinner spoke Friday.

[00:00:08] Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner: About 9:30 tonight we got a call down here at the WOW Hall of a shooting. And we have six victims, unfortunately….

[00:00:14] We responded down here within two and a half minutes to a scene and a call of gunshots here at the WOW Hall at Eighth and Lincoln. We’ve got six victims that we know of, of gunshot wounds. One is critical and is at the hospital in surgery, I don’t know the status of the others, but as you can imagine, the investigation is going to be ongoing, it’s in its early stages. And what we’re really struggling with is the fact that we know we have witnesses. We know we probably have video and audio evidence that’s available. We just need people to feel comfortable to bring that forward so we can better understand what happened and better identify our suspect.

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[00:00:52] All we know at this point is we have a male in a hoodie that was seen running westbound on Eighth right after the shooting. We think that’s our suspect, but we really don’t have a lot of information, and again, detectives are doing the very best they can to try and ascertain what happened tonight.

[00:01:06] John Q: He encouraged witnesses to contact Eugene Police at 541-682-5162.

[00:01:13] Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner: The thing that’s really critical about this is that when you have something like this happen with this many people involved is that we know we have witnesses. We know we probably have video and audio available, if people are willing to share that with us.

[00:01:29] Early in this investigation while people were here, the crowd that was here was difficult to manage. It was hard for us to kind of get control of that scene. And there was not anybody that was willing to cooperate or to come forward and give us any kind of witness statements about what they may or may not have seen. And so we’re hopeful that with a little bit of time, that tomorrow, that they’d be willing to come forward and talk to us a little bit about what happened and really that’s how we’re going to solve this, is, we’re going to solve this through good investigation, good evidence collection, and we’re going to solve it with witnesses being able to come, being willing to come forward and share with us what they saw and potentially what evidence they may have captured on cell phones or other types of devices.

[00:02:14] John Q: Chief Skinner took questions from reporters.

[00:02:16] Reporter: You mentioned that the trickiness of trying to handle this scene right as it happened. Did you end up finding out that there were just a lot of people that were running out fleeing and having to deal with that while people are walking in from the other side of the street and merging.

[00:02:31] Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner: You know, I think what you have is, when you have this amount of chaos, people are doing all sorts of things. They’re coming, they’re going, they’re, they’re trying to do what they think is helpful, which oftentimes isn’t. You have law enforcement converging on the scene, which never feels good when people are here trying to have a good time. And so, you have all of those things that are unfortunately, oftentimes a competing interest to us trying to control the scene, and actually gather information and talk to people and identify who might be a witness.

[00:02:57] And so right now we don’t have many witnesses that have come forward. And, and I think that what law enforcement found when they came on scene is what exactly, what you would exactly expect when six people just got shot, just, people are just, they’re trying to get out of here. Their friends are on the ground, they’re trying to help. And unfortunately it just made it really, really difficult to control.

[00:03:18] Reporter: So six, six gunshot victims. Can you classify this as a mass shooting?

[00:03:23] Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner: Well, anytime you have more than one victim that’s a victim of a shooting, I think that the definition is three or more. And so, I would say, yeah, we’ve got multiple victims of gunshot wounds. I think this is about as close as you’re going to get. And certainly one of the highest profile shootings we’ve had in the city of Eugene.

[00:03:40] Reporter: Do you know, if any of the performers that were shot?

[00:03:43] Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner: I don’t know if any of the performers were shot. I don’t even know the names of the victims or any of the particulars about them right now. I just have that number for you of six and one that’s critical.

[00:03:55] Reporter: Any indication that this was random or targeted?

[00:03:58] Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner: We don’t right now have any indication of either one of those, random or targeted. I think as the investigation unfolds we’ll figure out any causal relationship we have between our shooter and the victims or this event that was being held but right now we don’t have any of that information.

[00:04:14] Reporter: Is there a camera in the back parking lot here?

[00:04:16] Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner: Don’t know that yet. And if there is, detectives will get that footage. And that will be a piece of that evidence that we’ll hold, we’ll hold pretty close until we can better understand what happened.

[00:04:27] Reporter: What should people in this area be concerned about or how should they protect themselves?

[00:04:30] Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner: I’m not sure what they should be concerned about. What we do is we have a suspect that’s outstanding. It has been my experience though, that if suspect is not from the area, they likely have found their way out of the area and either heading home or, trying to get out of the central part of Eugene. And so I think it’s fair to say that there’s not a significant safety risk right now, just based on my experience. But again, I have to be responsible and let the community know that we do have a suspect that we don’t, we haven’t apprehended, and this person is likely armed and dangerous as a result of what we saw tonight.

[00:05:01] John Q: Chief Skinner expressed appreciation for the partner public safety agencies.

[00:05:06] Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner: I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how challenging this is for a city our size with the resources that we have. And so just right off the bat, I’d like to extend my sincerest thanks to our partner agencies that responded with us tonight. We could have not managed the same without them. And so just this, those agencies and the work that they do is so vital to public safety, not only in Lane County, but in Eugene as well.

[00:05:32] John Q: The WOW Hall has cancelled classes until further notice.

[00:05:36] To share witness information, contact the Eugene Police at 541-682-5162.

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Update Jan. 15: EPD asked witnesses to use the new tip line, 541-682-5162.