CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A man arrested in a fatal shooting inside a crowded Iowa nightclub was seen on the club’s surveillance video shooting “intentionally and indiscriminately” into the crowd, police said in court filings.
Police arrested Timothy Ladell Rush, 32, on Monday and he appeared in court Tuesday on charges of second-degree murder, willful injury and three weapons-related felonies stemming from the early Sunday attack in which two people were killed and 10 others were wounded. He was ordered held on $1.5 million bail, and the public defender’s office was appointed to represent him.
The public defender’s office said Tuesday that it hadn’t yet named an attorney to his case.
Police said the shooting at the Taboo Nightclub and Lounge in Cedar Rapids killed Michael Valentine, 25, and Nicole Owens, 35, both of Cedar Rapids. The attack happened at around 1:30 a.m. Sunday during a birthday party for a friend of Valentine and Owens. Between 100 and 150 people were inside the club at the time, police said, and investigators said on Sunday they believed two people carried out the shootings.
Court documents say that during police questioning, Rush identified himself in the surveillance video.
“The defendant appeared to have fired intentionally and indiscriminately, with what is believed to be a 9 mm handgun, into a large crowd of people,” following an initial shooting in the club, police said in court documents.
Police say Rush killed Owens and shot another man in the head, leaving him with serious injuries. Police have not clarified if they’re seeking a second suspected shooter. Police have said that at least one of the victims was the target of the shooting.
In court documents, police said a search of Rush’s home turned up a 9 mm handgun and that ballistics tests identified it as a gun used in the shootings.
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