Cops: 8 shot outside Buffalo restaurant; 4 dead

[August 14, 2010]  BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- A shooting outside a restaurant in downtown Buffalo early Saturday left four people dead and four wounded, police said.

The restaurant held a wedding reception earlier in the night, but police didn't know if anyone in the wedding party was involved in the shooting, police Homicide Chief Dennis Richards said. Nor did they know how many shooters there were.

"We're checking to see if something precipitated this from inside," Richards said.

Officers responding to a report of a shooting at City Grill, a bar in the city's business district, around 2:30 a.m. discovered three people dead, Richards said. A fourth died at a hospital.

Richards said the dead include two men and two women. Their identities haven't been released.

The four wounded victims, all men, were taken to Buffalo General Hospital and Erie County Medical Center, Richards said. Richards did not know their conditions.

Tommy Dates, 35, of Buffalo, said he was at the bar area of the restaurant with his friends when he noticed a party had broken up. He said people started leaving the restaurant but rushed back inside a few minutes later.

"A lot of people were real upset, just trying to get out of the way," Dates said. "Nobody know where anything was coming from. Everyone was in a panic."

Several hours later, three covered bodies lay in front of the restaurant. People milled around, consoling each other in the street.

[Associated Press; By CAROLYN THOMPSON]

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