[Updated] Two shootings overnight, potential connection still unknown: Bloomington police seeking information

Bloomington police are investigating two early-Saturday shootings within two blocks of each other in downtown Bloomington.

[Updated at 5:44 p.m. on May 2, 2022: Bloomington police announced on May 2 that an arrest was made that day in connection with the Kalao shooting.]

[Updated at 5:23 p.m. on April 23, 2022: Bloomington police have issued an updated news release on the shootings. It is still not known if the two shootings are related. No arrests have been made in either investigation, according to the late Saturday afternoon news release.

Based on video surveillance from inside the Kalao Nightclub, the suspect and the 41-year-old victim were in an altercation just before the shooting. The suspect can then be seen producing a handgun and firing multiple times in the crowded bar area. Two of the victims in the nightclub shooting are still hospitalized. The third has been treated and released, according to the updated BPD news release.

According to the updated news release on Saturday afternoon, on not much has been learned about the shooting near the intersection of 6th and Lincoln streets. Investigators continue to search for witnesses and are attempting to review surveillance footage from nearby cameras, according to the release. The 26-year-old victim from that shooting is currently hospitalized and is in critical condition, according to the late afternoon news release.]

The first shooting location was the Kalao Nightclub, at 8th and Walnut Streets, where police found three people with gunshot wounds outside the club around 1:10 a.m. on April 23. The three sustained their wounds inside the club, according to a statement released by Bloomington police around 5 a.m.

The three victims were transported to IU Health Bloomington Hospital for treatment, and at the time of the 5 a.m. news release, their conditions were not known.

Police are asking anyone with information related to the 8th-and-Walnut shooting to contact BPD detective Jeff Rodgers at (812) 349-3318.

While on the scene at 8th and Walnut, officers received another call about a shooting victim in a parking lot at 6th and Lincoln Streets. It’s not known if the second shooting is connected to the first, according to the BPD statement.

BPD is asking anyone with information about the shooting near 6th and Lincoln streets to contact BPD detective Jon Muscato at (812) 349-3325.

According to the news release, when officers responded to the 6th-and-Lincoln area, they found a 26-year-old man in the front passenger seat of a vehicle, who had a gunshot wound to his abdomen. The victim was transported to IU Health Bloomington Hospital by ambulance, according to the release. His condition was not known at the time the news release was issued.

Police think the man was shot near the alleyway that runs east and west between Kirkwood Avenue and 6th Street.

There are parking lots on both the east and the west sides of Lincoln at 6th Street. The news release does not say in which of the two parking lots they found the man who had been shot.

But in the early daylight hours on Saturday, lying in a parking space in the lot on the west side of 6th Street, The B Square saw discarded surgical gloves and apparent blood stains on the asphalt.

Request for assistance from BPD

Police are asking anyone with information related to the 8th-and-Walnut shooting to contact BPD detective Jeff Rodgers at (812) 349-3318. BPD is asking anyone with information about the shooting near 6th and Lincoln streets to contact BPD detective Jon Muscato at (812) 349-3325.