photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Lawrence police conduct interviews after a shooting at The Jayhawk Cafe, 1340 Ohio St., on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026.

No basis exists for a gunman to claim immunity from prosecution in the Jan. 17 shootings at The Hawk, a Douglas County prosecutor has written, citing video and witness accounts in the case.

The 18-year-old shooter, Daitron Daniels Strickland, has claimed that he was acting in self-defense when he fatally shot another 18-year-old outside the Lawrence bar on Ohio Street and critically wounded a 16-year-old. According to his attorney, Razmi Tahirkheli, he should therefore be immune from prosecution.

Daniels Strickland told police that he fired his gun when he heard multiple gunshots near the bar and feared for his life. He said he didn’t know where the shots came from. Pulling out and firing his weapon “was a natural reaction to defend himself,” Tahirkheli said in his immunity motion, adding that his client attempted to “minimize harm” by shooting at a low cement wall near the bar.

But this is not what happened, Senior Assistant District Attorney Eve Kemple said in a written response to the immunity motion. Rather, Kemple wrote, Daniels Strickland’s friend, Caiden Clem, fired shots into the air outside the bar — the shots that Daniels Strickland heard — and it was obvious to people at the scene where those shots came from.

“Video shows people looking toward the street in Caiden Clem’s direction,” Kemple wrote. “It is clear they knew where the shots were coming from and were looking at Caiden Clem, the shooter.”

Daniels Strickland was at that point standing right outside The Hawk and turned and walked away from the three young men standing outside the door of The Hawk, “all of whom were in his friend group that night,” Kemple wrote.

“Then the Defendant walked a couple of steps toward the end of the sidewalk, turned toward the three young men, pulled a gun from his waist, took a couple of steps back and aimed at and shot directly at the 3 young men standing outside the door,” Kemple wrote. “He continued (backing) up and shooting, then ran out of the fenced area, across the street and fled.”

The three young men — none of them armed, Kemple wrote — were 18-year-old Aidan Sullivan Knowles, who was killed; 16-year-old Brady Clark, who was critically injured; and Maddox Myer, who was not hit and who is listed as having been born in 2008.

In order to defeat the immunity from prosecution claim, Kemple has to show probable cause that Daniels Strickland’s use of force was not justified under state law either because he did not honestly believe the use of force was necessary under the circumstances or because a reasonable person would not believe it.

Kemple’s motion argues that Daniels Strickland didn’t honestly believe deadly force was necessary — based on his telling police different things about his behavior: that he was simply firing warning shots up in the air, that he was firing at the low wall, not at people, and that he simply fired because he was scared for his own safety. He also, she said, seemed to indicate an awareness that Clem had fired the shots while also saying he had no idea where they originated.

“Near the end of the (police) interview, the Defendant said he believed he would do about 10 years before he could come home and he heard people say it’s good to catch a body on your first adult charge,” Kemple wrote.

Kemple also argues in her response that no reasonable person would believe that deadly force was necessary under the circumstances to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm. Not only did people at the scene appear to be well aware that the initial shots in the air came from Clem, she wrote, but no one besides Daniels Strickland seemed particularly fearful or felt the need to draw a weapon and fire either at Clem or at the three unarmed men by the door.

Judge Amy Hanley is set to consider the immunity motion on Tuesday, when both Clem and Daniels Strickland are scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing.

Both men are being held in the Douglas County Jail on bonds of $1 million cash or surety.

Daniels Strickland, of Shawnee, is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Knowles and one count of attempted second-degree murder in the shooting of Clark. He also faces an attempted second-degree murder charge for allegedly firing at Myer.

Clem has been charged with murder in the first degree (during the commission of the felony of aggravated assault) and two counts of aggravated assault. The murder charge relates to Knowles. The aggravated assault charges relate to using a handgun to place two people, Cole Morris and Jake Spencer, in reasonable apprehension of immediate bodily harm. Spencer is listed in charging documents as having been born in 2009. No year is given for Morris.