MIDDLETOWN, Ohio -- Two shootings within two hours in Middletown Monday night are believed to be related, according to Middletown Assistant Police Chief Mark Hoffman.
Hoffman told WCPO news partner WHIO the double shooting in the parking lot of the Third Base Saloon involved patrons who were inside the bar and were involved in an altercation after leaving the establishment Monday night around 9:45 p.m.
A second shooting in the 300 block of Park Street was reported and involved up to three people being injured by gunfire around 11:20 p.m. The two shooting scenes were about a mile apart.
Hoffman said the victims in both shootings are not being cooperative with police.
According to Hoffman, the police department will be evaluating whether the Third Base Saloon would fall into the chronic nuisance ordinance in place with the city.
"They never came in the bar. It was out in the parking lot," said April Lewis, a bartender at Third Base Saloon. "All we're doing is trying to figure it out ourselves."
Lewis said the shooting suspects and victims were not bar patrons.
"There's a lot of younger kids in this neighborhood that don't really have anything to do, so they kind of started congregating around our patio," she said. "But we shut the patio down around a month ago to dissipate the loitering happening around the patio."
Middletown police were called to the 1500 block of Brown Street Tuesday morning for another reported shooting. Officers found a man suffering from a gunshot that is believed to be self-inflicted, police told The Journal-News.
“We are still trying to get to the bottom of it. We believe it was accidental,” said Middletown Assistant Police Chief Mark Hoffman.
Hoffman said the incident is not related to the shootings Monday night on Crawford and Park streets.
