At least 10 injured in shooting outside Pennsylvania nightclub, investigation underway
At least 10 people were shot outside the Deja Vu nightclub on Hamilton Street in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the early hours of Thursday, June 20, according to police. The shooting has been deemed one of Lehigh Valley’s worst mass shootings in recent history.
Allentown police Capt. Bill Lake said that the wounded were rushed to the hospital even as officials continued to monitor the situation at the location. Latest updates state that all who were shot are expected to survive.
Authorities were alerted of the shooting at 1.56 am on the 300 block of Hamilton Street. When police arrived at the scene, they found multiple victims outside the nightclub.
Reports state that most of the victims had just left the club, while others were standing on the sidewalk outside when the shots were heard. Deja Vu club is notorious for courting violent incidents, according to reports.
One of the witnesses, Tashana Santiago, who lives at the Third and Linden streets near the club, said that she woke up to the sound of gunshots and saw people running across American Parkway into a shopping center. She reportedly also heard a car speeding away after the last few shots were fired, according to Mcall.com. "When everything went silent all you could hear is the screaming and panicking," Santiago said. "All I could think was someone is dying."
Officials from multiple police departments were at the scene and the Hamilton Street, between Third and Fourth streets, was closed in both directions until 5 am, according to reports. Lehigh County's DA Jim Martin released a statement on Thursday morning, saying he could not comment further on the case yet as the investigation into the incident is still ongoing. Martin added that he could not recall any other shooting in the county with this many victims. "I'm not going to answer any more questions about it," Martin said. "It remains under investigation."
Allentown police have asked anyone with information about the incident to call the detective bureau at 610-437-7721.