UPDATED: 2 men shot to death in possible hate crime outside Tucson LGBTQ+ bar

UPDATE:

Tucson police have confirmed that there was no prior connection between Ousman Ceesay and the two gay men he shot to death outside the longtime Tuscon LGBTQ+ bar Venture-N shortly after midnight on Monday, Aug. 31, and that the shooting was, indeed, an anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime.

Ceesay, who police say shot himself to death after killing Vincent Anthony Siquieros and Cameron Davis Capara, was carrying a list of LGBTQ+ and LGBTQ+-related businesses with their addresses when he shot the two men and himself. Police have since said that while searching Ceesay’s home Monday afternoon they found a note indicating the shooting was “a targeted attack motivated by hate toward the LGBTQIA+ community” and that he acted alone.

According to The Tucson Sentinel, “Tucson officers also spoke to the owners of other businesses on Ceesay’s list and are now working with ‘supporting community organizations’ to provide them with support.”

ORIGINAL POST:

A shooting at a Tucson LGBTQ+ bar left three people dead, including the shooter, and police there said the shooter was carrying a list of several other LGBTQ-related businesses when he died.

According to numerous media reports, shortly after midnight on Monday morning, Aug. 31, Ousman Ceesay, 44, shot Vincent Anthony Siquieros, 42, and Cameron Davis Capara, 33  in the parking lot outside Venture-N, an LGBTQ+ bar near downtown Tucson that, according to Gayety.com, has been “a beloved fixture in Tucson’s queer nightlife scene since the 1980s.”

Ceesay also suffered a gunshot wound and was pronounced dead later at a local hospital, according to NBC News, although Tucson police had “declined to immediately release details about Ceesay’s manner of death beyond saying he had a gunshot wound.”  In fact, NBC News notes, police have released few details at all about the shooting, including whether or not Ceesay knew either of the victims.

Tucson police have said that they are investigating the shooting as a possible hate crime. And while police said there is “no known active threat” to the city’s LGBTQ+ community, the department has increased its police presence around LGBTQ+ and LGBTQ+-friendly businesses in the area.

PFLAG Phoenix wrote in a social media post on Monday that “Venture-N has been a safe haven, a sanctuary and a place of comfort for Tucson’s queer community for decades. This tragedy is a heavy and painful reminder of the homophobia and hate that still exists.”

And Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, in a post to Facebook, called the shooting a “a direct and devastating attack on our LGBTQ+ community, another senseless act of gun violence.” Romera added that the shooting “serves as another painful reminder that homophobia is still rampant in our country.”

— Tammye Nash