Man Killed, 6 People Wounded in Shootout Outside Nightclub

Two men blazed away at each other with semiautomatic pistols in the parking lot of a Palmdale restaurant and dance club Monday, raking a closing-hour crowd with fusillades of shots that left one of the men dead and six bystanders wounded.

The gunfight erupted outside the Old Firehouse shortly before 2 a.m., as about 200 people poured out of a dance party hosted by a local disc jockey.

Within moments, one of the men was dying on the pavement, six other people, including a pregnant 16-year-old, were wounded by gunfire, and a guard--who also exchanged shots with one of the men--escaped with three bullet holes in his pants leg.

Bentley Eugene Young, 30, of Lancaster, was pronounced dead at Palmdale Hospital Medical Center. Two other victims, one a 26-year-old woman, remained hospitalized at Antelope Valley Medical Center.

Information on the condition of the pregnant shooting victim was not available because she is a minor, a hospital spokeswoman said. But Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said she is seven months pregnant and that her wound, which was not serious, did not affect the fetus. The others, ranging in age from 17 to 30, were treated and released.

Deputies were questioning four men in connection with the shooting.

“This is a real shock to us and our little town of Palmdale,” said Rodney Bruce, who owns the Old Firehouse, a combination restaurant, sports bar and dance club on East Palmdale Boulevard.

Bruce, sheriff’s investigators and others--who feared reprisals and asked not to be identified--gave the following account:

About 300 people, many of them 18- to 20-year-olds, had attended a regular Sunday night dance party hosted by Mike Woodward, a popular disc jockey on Antelope Valley radio station KAVS.

As cars lined up to leave the parking lot, a burly man braked his pickup truck, got out and using his truck door as a shield, began firing at Young, who returned the shots.

“They just fired, rapid fire,” Bruce said. “They had plenty of firepower, both of them.”

As Young slumped to the ground, according to a security guard’s account, the suspected shooter walked up to him and fired a round into his chest. Then he shot Young several more times as he lay on the ground.

“He just kept popping shots,” Bruce said. “You’re talking about someone who’s firing 10 or maybe 15 shots.”

“The shooter was cold-blooded about it,” said a guard.

He then sprayed the crowd with gunfire to clear an escape path, according to witnesses, and exchanged fire with a guard.

“About 200 people were coming out the door and he fires into the crowd,” Bruce said. “He fired at an armed security officer. So now we’ve got about 21, 22 shots fired. They exchanged gunfire, so that’s another six or seven shots fired. We’re up over 30 shots fired in just a few minutes.”

Pandemonium broke out in the parking lot. Bruce said he opened a back door and let about 50 frightened patrons into the club’s kitchen to get them out of the line of fire.

“It was pretty worrisome out there for about 10 minutes,” he said.

At some point--it was unclear exactly when--the gunman also was wounded, Bruce and others say. It could not be determined Monday who fired the shot that hit him or how badly he was hurt.

As bar patrons screamed and ran, the shooter, now bleeding, also fled with three companions. Seconds later, sheriff’s deputies who were patrolling in the area of the bar, stopped a speeding pickup and detained the four occupants for questioning.

Meanwhile, bar employees, patrons, police and security officers tended the wounded, Bruce said. “Some made it back inside. We got CPR going, and the fella’s dying. We were putting towels and compression on some of the wounds.”

He clung to life until after paramedics got him into the hospital emergency room, the coroner’s officers said.

The guard who exchanged shots with the killer was shaken but unhurt, fellow guards said. “He had an angel sitting on his shoulder,” a co-worker said.

He later said he did not realize until the shooting stopped how close he came to being hit--that three bullets had passed through the fabric of his trousers without hitting him, said the manager of the security company, who asked not to be identified.

Three victims were taken to Palmdale Hospital Medical Center. Two were treated and released and the pregnant girl was taken to Antelope Valley Medical Center, where the 26-year-old woman was listed in fair condition. Two 20-year-old women were treated and released from Lancaster Community Hospital.

“I’ve been working up here for six years and nothing like this has ever happened before,” said Woodward, who said he had emceed hundreds of concerts and nightclub shows. “It’s a pretty scary thing.”

“This hurts,” Bruce said, expressing worries that the violent incident will harm his business. “We have a real nice restaurant here.”

“These lawless people are ruining our streets. They have no fear of the law at all. They just walk tall.”