Defendant Danny W. Queen talks with his counsel during his pretrial hearing before district court Judge Peggy Kittel on Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017. Queen is charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder in the June 24, 2017, shooting death of Bo Hopson, 32, of Eudora, outside D-Dubs Bar and Grill in Eudora.

A summer night at their local bar got rowdy, then deadly, when possibly the only patron they didn’t recognize got kicked out and started shooting, two Eudora men say.

Those men and law enforcement officers testified Tuesday at a preliminary hearing for murder suspect Danny W. Queen, 36, of Eudora, after which a Douglas County District Court judge bound Queen over for trial.

Queen is charged with one count of first-degree murder in the killing of 32-year-old Eudora resident and bar security worker Bo Hopson, plus two counts of attempted first-degree murder for allegedly pointing his gun at the two witnesses and pulling the trigger — although, witnesses testified, the gun just “clicked.”

“There is sufficient evidence on all three counts to submit this case to a jury,” Judge Peggy Kittel said. “Witnesses saw Bo being shot by Mr. Queen.”

Queen’s arraignment was set for Oct. 31, and his trial date should be scheduled at that time.

Defendant Danny W. Queen talks with his counsel during his pretrial hearing before district court Judge Peggy Kittel on Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017. Queen is charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder in the June 24, 2017, shooting death of Bo Hopson, 32, of Eudora, outside D-Dubs Bar and Grill in Eudora.

The shooting happened shortly after 1 a.m. June 24 outside D-Dubs, 10 W. Ninth St. in Eudora. The injured Hopson was taken to the University of Kansas Hospital, where he died on June 25.

The small town just east of Lawrence — which had celebrated its century-old annual CPA picnic and carnival the previous day — has a population around 6,300.

About 25 onlookers were in the courtroom for Tuesday’s hearing. Several said they were family members of Queen, and more than a dozen said they were relatives and supporters of Hopson.

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Clark Orth gave this testimony:

After having three beers at D-Dubs, Orth had paid his tab and was getting ready to walk out the door when he saw and heard Queen making lewd and profane comments to a woman in the bar.

Female bartenders asked Queen to leave multiple times, Orth said, but Queen refused and responded with a lewd gesture.

That’s when one of the bartenders said, “Somebody go get Bo.”

Orth said Hopson, who was working security that night at D-Dubs, approached Queen and said, “Come on buddy, let’s leave,” and again, “Come on buddy, let’s go outside.”

Bo M. Hopson

Another patron put his arm around Queen and tried to cajole him in the same manner, but each time, Queen didn’t respond. After Hopson warned Queen that he’d been asked to leave nicely, Queen did get up from the bar, but fell on the floor, Orth said.

Hopson and the patron helped him up and led him out the door. Outside, Orth said, words flew between Queen and the husband of the woman Queen made comments to. Queen swung at the man but missed and stumbled, and the two men wrestled on the ground until Orth and other patrons separated them, Orth said.

Orth described Queen in a stupor-like state: “He just sat there, really not even looking at anybody … there was no response.”

Orth said patrons helped Queen up, leaned him against and then lifted him onto a flatbed trailer in front of the bar, where a band had played earlier that night.

Queen lay down on the trailer, and Hopson asked Queen whether he had a ride or whether he could call someone for him, but Orth said Queen still did not respond.

“Bo told everybody to go back inside, to separate themselves from the situation, and he would watch him,” Orth said.

Orth said he stayed and talked with Hopson as Queen lay on the trailer. At one point, Queen reached into his left pocket, pulled out a cell phone and after a few minutes put it back in his pocket.

Queen then reached into his right pocket.

After a lengthy pause to compose himself, Orth described what happened next.

“That’s when I saw the gun come out,” Orth said. “I yelled, ‘Bo, he’s got a gun!’ It’s like he woke up, stood up — stone-cold face — and pointed at Bo. The gun went off. I heard it hit Bo’s chest, and I heard Bo gasp. And I went to run, to the left, and I heard the second shot.”

Orth said he turned back to see what was going on, and saw Queen pointing the gun directly at him — he saw him pulling the trigger, but instead of shots, he heard two clicks.

Orth dove under the trailer, but Queen followed him. Orth said he looked up and saw him pointing the gun at him again, but again heard only clicks.

“The saying, ‘Life flashes before your eyes?’ It was that in one second,” Orth said. “I thought this was it.”

At that moment, Orth saw someone tackle Queen, and Orth said he ran straight to tend to Hopson, who was bleeding from a gunshot wound to the chest and another to his upper arm.

•••

The someone who reportedly tackled Queen was Dustin Crowe. Crowe gave this testimony:

Crowe had been at the bar since about 9:30 or 10 p.m. He’d had eight or ten beers and was “heavily buzzed but not drunk.”

He’d been in the restroom when he came out and saw Queen — whom he’d seen in the bar earlier but didn’t know — being asked to leave.

“He was saying, ‘I’m not that bad. You guys are just being pieces of (expletive) and trying to kick me out of here ’cause you don’t know me,'” Crowe said.

Later Crowe said he heard two shots, which he thought at first were firecrackers.

D-Dubs Bar and Grill is located at 10 W. Ninth St. in Eudora.

“I knew something popped off, but I didn’t know it was a gun — I mean, it’s Eudora,” Crowe said.

He saw Orth by the trailer, thought he was running to see what was going on and ran over next to him. When Crowe looked up, he said, he saw Queen pointing a gun directly at him, heard a bang and then just clicks. Crowe said fight-or-flight kicked in, and he feared if he ran he’d get shot in the back.

“He was within reaching distance, so I took him down,” Crowe said. “I took him down and whooped his (expletive).”

Crowe said he punched Queen, who was lying on the ground, until Queen was bloody and unconscious.

Crowe said his brother, Tyler Crowe, took the gun from Queen’s hand. Dustin Crowe said only after Queen was “down” did he realize Hopson had been shot.

•••

D-Dubs had multiple surveillance cameras that captured the entire incident — from Queen being led out of the bar to him being pummeled on the ground after the shooting — Eudora police detective Daniel Flick testified.

Flick’s description of events as seen in the video matched that of the bar patrons who testified earlier. He said Queen was sitting up by the time he arrived and that paramedics checked him out before taking him to the Eudora Police Department to be interviewed.

Queen’s appointed attorneys, Dakota Loomis and Joshua Seiden, cross-examined the witnesses, with questions including how much they’d had to drink as well as whom they’d spoken with about the night’s events other than police.

Loomis and Seiden said they did not object to evidence the state presented at Tuesday’s hearing.

Prosecutors said the evidence supported the charges against Queen.

“This was not a shooting that was done in the heat of passion or suddenly; there was time for the defendant to think about it,” Amy McGowan said. Then, regarding the attempted murder charges, she continued, “But for the grace of God … the gun didn’t go off.”