Shootings began over pool game, according to official accounts

The mass shooting Saturday, March 4, at Hotshots Bar and Grill in Cape Girardeau started out as a brawl near the pool tables, then erupted into a gunfight involving three people firing guns. Four of the five gunshot victims appear to be "innocent bystanders" who were not involved in the fight at all. None of the three men arrested in connection with the incident were the first to draw their weapons.

Tyler Banks

Tyler Banks

Probable-cause statements obtained by the Southeast Missourian explain what officers observed on surveillance video taken inside the sports bar. The video did not contain audio.

Ranell Robinson

Ranell Robinson

Cape Girardeau Police Department issued a news release Thursday, March 9, saying two of the four bystanders have agreed to cooperate with the investigation. The other two told law enforcement they will not cooperate with the prosecution. Charges are not being sought at this time for their injuries.

Jeremiah Twiggs

Jeremiah Twiggs

The probable-cause statement written by officer Keith Green regarding charges against Ranell Robinson explains that one of the shooting victims, was playing pool and moving around the pool table and having "difficulty finding adequate space to move the pool stick."

The man and Robinson began to argue with one another. Robinson shoved him, and then Tyler Banks, another man arrested in the incident, struck the man in the head with a glass bottle. He fell to the floor, where Banks continued to hit him while he was on the ground.

Once Banks stopped hitting the man, the man got up from the ground and walked to the other side of the pool table, where he began talking to another patron about what happened.

As the man was talking to this patron, another man, Jeremiah Twiggs, nudged him, reached into the pocket of his hooded sweatshirt, and handed him a gun, according to a probable-cause statement signed by officer Joseph Thomas regarding charges against Twiggs.

The man took the gun, turned toward Robinson and raised the firearm. Robinson then also displayed his firearm and began shooting. Both men, according to the Robinson PC statement, were shooting simultaneously at one another when Banks, from another location, also began firing toward the man, who was hit with multiple shots to the body, the statement says, but he continued firing toward Robinson.

"The gunfire ends with Robinson and Banks fleeing and (the man) on the floor of the business," Green wrote in his probable cause statement on Robinson. "During the exchange of gunfire, the other four victims were struck. Other than (the man), the other gunshot victims do not appear to have been at all involved in the dispute and were simply bystanders."

Hotshots was busy Saturday night, according to Matthew Canady of Scott County. He said the tables toward the front of the bar and grill were occupied, and the only empty tables were toward the back of the facility. Canady estimated there were 100 or more people in the building.

The man's gun was recovered at the scene.