Recent shooting discussed among police, bar owners

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Purdue and West Lafayette Police Departments along with several bar owners were on hand at a bar coalition meeting Thursday discussing a lot of different topics related to the sale of alcohol. West Lafayette Police Chief Jason Dombkowski also took time to discuss the weekend shooting that happened at Nick's Bar.

At the meeting, Dombkowski said when he pulled up to the scene of the shooting at Nick's early Sunday morning, it was "chaotic." He said it was a scene officers weren't used to seeing at bars in West Lafayette.

Dombkowski mentioned from now on, police departments should know if a bar is going to hold a special event, much like Nick's was having at the time of the shooting. He said although it would have been nearly impossible to prevent the shooting that happened, at least police would have known what was going on when they showed up to the scene.

"Our office hadn't been contacted. University officials, to my knowledge, were not aware of it. It's not a university-affiliated event, by the way, that we could determine. Certainly in the bar district of West Lafayette, we would like to know these events so we could plan for it appropriately on our end and make sure that anything that happens in the city is a safe venue, a safe format and that things are staffed appropriately," said Dombkowski.

Dombkowski said it was surprising to him when he pulled up to the scene to see the crowd wasn't local.

"The striking thing I had noticed about it is, it wasn't our student population. It wasn't people from our community in here. I didn't recognize the group," said Dombkowski.

Local police continue to work with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and are following new leads. West Lafayette Police Lieutenant Troy Harris wouldn't say what those leads were when asked on Thursday. The investigation is ongoing.