Lawrence Police officers search for bullet casings surrounding Last Call, 729 N.H. A shooting about 3 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008, morning sent three people to the hospital.

Carol Roberts heard it again: Bam. Bam. Bam-bam-bam.

The Hobbs Taylor Lofts resident has learned what gunfire sounds like since moving in across from Last Call, 729 N.H., in 2005. And early Sunday morning, she heard that sound again when three people were shot outside of the private club shortly before 3 a.m. All three were taken to area hospitals, where at least two remained Sunday night.

“The staff was removing someone from the establishment who had been a problem inside. We don’t know if that has anything to do with what happened outside,” Lawrence police Capt. Dan Affalter said. “As they were dealing with that individual on the sidewalk, someone pulled out from the parking lot just north of the business and fired about eight shots.”

Two of the victims are Last Call employees. A 22-year-old Kansas City, Mo., man was shot in the back and taken by air ambulance to Kansas University Hospital in Kansas City, Kan. However, hospital officials would neither confirm nor deny he was a patient there Sunday night. The other employee, a 27-year-old Stilwell man, was shot in the foot and transported to Lawrence Memorial Hospital, where he was in fair condition Sunday night.

The third victim was a 15-year-old Topeka boy who had been a patron of the club, according to police. He was taken by private vehicle to Lawrence Memorial Hospital and then transferred to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. He remained there Sunday night, in fair condition.

Lawrence police described the suspected shooter as a black male, approximately 5-foot-7, 140 to 150 pounds, possibly wearing a black coat.

‘Mass chaos’

Affalter described the scene outside Last Call when officers arrived as “mass chaos.”

Alex Hormell was sitting in his pickup truck across from the club when the shots rang out.

“I could see people running down the street,” said Hormell, who owns a cleaning service, Kellex Services, which handles the Hobbs Taylor building.

Hormell said he was considering applying for a concealed-carry permit as long as he continues to work so close to Last Call.

“This shouldn’t be happening in this kind of town,” he said.

Lisa Flanders, another Hobbs Taylor resident who awoke to the sounds of gunfire, said she thought she was dreaming until the sounds of “10 to 12 police cars” startled her fully awake.

“It’s really scary,” she said. “Now that I know what happened, I probably wouldn’t have been so curious and come to the window as quickly if I had known there were actual gunshots at the time.”

Lawrence police stopped a car in Topeka shortly after the shooting, but as of Sunday afternoon there was no one in custody and police were preparing for a lengthy investigation.

The gun problem

Since losing his establishment’s liquor license late last year because of problems with drugs and violence, owner Dennis Steffes has operated Last Call as a bring-your-own-alcohol private club.

The business is well-known to local police.

More than a dozen guns have been seized from cars in parking lots near the private club, and seven gunshots were fired inside the bar in May 2006.

More recently, rolling highway gun battles between groups of people who had left Last Call have been a problem in the Kansas City area. During one of those incidents – in November – one man was killed on Interstate 435 in Kansas City, Mo.

Roberts, the Hobbs Taylor resident who has grown to recognize the sound of gunfire, said the club is a “community problem,” but that “it’s just the way it is.”

“I don’t like it. No one likes it,” she said.