Flowers are placed in bullet holes and candles line the street near the scene of a deadly mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio.
“Once he unloaded a couple of times you could hear the police come in with their shots too,” Dayton local Mike Hoover said.
Hoover is talking about the chaos after a man opened fire in a popular downtown entertainment district.
“It’s home; it could have been me,” Hoover said, while wiping away tears.
For some, tears have turned into rage.
“We’re really pissed off to be quite frank about it,” said Ohio Congressman and Presidential candidate Tim Ryan.
Congressman Ryan voiced his frustration, while calling for changes to gun control.
“We’re not going to stand for anything less, and I think the president is pushing some reform that he wants to tie to immigration, which I think is complete bullsh**,” he said.
Some locals are leaving politics out of this, rather focusing on helping their community heal.
“Born and raised here,” said DeQuinn Talley. “I love this community, man. It’s where my heart is.”
Talley of Duck’s Donuts loves Dayton so much that he got a tattoo to represent his hometown. Less than two days after the shooting, he’s giving in a time of need.
“We’re going to take some donuts over to the local hospitals, to the nurses and doctors, who have over seen these victims,” he said.
Not all victims, however, were hurt physically. Mark Hellier says this tragedy has wounded him emotionally.
“I don’t know any other way to describe it than a terrorist attack,” he said. “This was everybody’s safe place down here.”
Hellier says his safe space has been violated and that he’s now looking to move on and away from where the shooting happened.
“It’s a constant reminder every time that I come downstairs I see where there was a dead body there,” he said.
