It had never happened in Lawrence before Sunday, police say: a man walking down the sidewalk with a gun, apparently trying to skip bullets off the sidewalk into a crowd of late-night bar patrons.

“This is the first time we’ve had multiple, indiscriminate shooting into a crowd,” Lawrence Police Sgt. Mike Pattrick said Monday.

Pattrick said police didn’t yet know the motive of the suspect, 21-year-old Jason A. Tremble of Topeka.

At least 11 people were injured in the shooting, which happened shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday outside It’s Brothers Bar & Grill, 1105 Mass.

Prosecutors Monday formally charged Tremble with 11 counts of aggravated battery, one count of criminal possession of a firearm and one count of leaving the scene of an accident. The charges did not include attempted second-degree murder, for which he was initially booked into the Douglas County Jail.

Douglas County District Judge Pro Tem Peggy Kittel set Tremble’s bond at $50,000.

None of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries, and some didn’t require hospital treatment, Pattrick said.

“We don’t have anybody identified that took a direct shot,” he said.

‘Part of the action’

Jason A. Tremble, of Topeka, appeared in Douglas County District Court by video conference from the Douglas County Jail. Tremble was charged Monday with 11 counts of aggravated battery in connection with a shooting early Sunday outside It's Brothers Bar & Grill, 1105 Mass.

It’s Brothers is frequented by Kansas University students, and general manager Greg Thomes said the bar, with a capacity of about 400 people, was crowded Saturday night.

A 25-year-old Colorado man injured in the shooting said when it happened he was standing outside the bar with his brother, a Kansas University student, trying to decide whether to go out for doughnuts or order a pizza. He said he heard a commotion and what sounded like clapping, and his brother began pushing him back toward the bar’s door.

He felt something like a kick in his left thigh, but just thought it was “part of the action.” He reached in his pocket and felt there was a hole in it.

“I pulled out my keys my hand was bloody,” said the victim, who asked that his name not be printed. “There was a hole in my shorts and a big old flesh wound on my leg.”

He went to Lawrence Memorial Hospital but left when he grew tired of waiting for a doctor. He later changed his own wound dressing and went home to Colorado. Monday morning, he looked at his wound and saw it looked “like a dog chewed on my leg.” He called his doctor and went in for an X-ray.

¢ 6News vido: Shooting suspect charged with aggravated battery¢ Shooting outside bar injures 11 (10-6-03)¢ More about It’s Brothers¢ Map of Lawrence’s bars

“Sure enough, there’s a 9 mm fragment stuck in my leg that needs to be removed at 9 a.m. tomorrow,” he said. “The scar is probably as big as a half-dollar. The bruise is about the size of a grapefruit.”

He said he never saw anyone firing a gun. Police had not recovered a firearm as of Monday, Pattrick said.

Police said shortly after the shooting Tremble wrecked a car at Sixth and Kentucky streets, then abandoned the scene. They initially said witnesses saw two people leaving the scene, but Pattrick said police now think only one person fled the scene.

Searching for a gunman

Considering last weekend’s shooting, do you think something should be done to make downtown Lawrence safer at night? Yes. There needs to be more of a police or security presence downtown late at night. Yes. But private security, rather than the police should be increased. No. The shooting was a very unusual incident. Downtown Lawrence hasn’t changed. Undecided. ¢See the results »Note: This is not a scientific poll. The results reflect only the opinions of those who chose to participate.

Victor Cervantez, 21, Topeka, said police picked him up somewhere in Lawrence — he doesn’t remember where because he was intoxicated — took him to the police department and began questioning him.

“I was like, ‘What’s this concerning?’ They wouldn’t tell me at first,” Cervantez said. He said they later told him they were looking for a gunman. He told officers he’d been at Cadillac Ranch, 2515 W. Sixth St., earlier in the night, and police released him after his alibi checked out.

Tremble has a prior felony conviction for possession of narcotics or opiates, prosecutor Scott McPherson said during a court hearing Monday. He has the second-most severe criminal-history score under Kansas sentencing guidelines.

“If convicted in this case, he will go to prison,” McPherson said.

Tremble, who appeared in court by videoconference from the Douglas County Jail, told Kittel he understood the charges against him and said his family was trying to gather money to hire an attorney.

The bar’s founders, Marc and Eric Fortney of La Crosse, Wis., came to Lawrence on Monday to assess damage. They said police told them the shooting probably was a random act of violence.

“We’re mad as hell it happened in our neighborhood, on our block,” Marc Fortney said.

— 6News reporter/anchor Janet Reid contributed to this story.