photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Caiden Clem, left, and Daitron Daniels Strickland appear Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, in Douglas County District Court.

Updated at 3:50 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 10

A loud gasp went up in the packed courtroom Tuesday morning as relatives of two shooting victims saw video of a man suddenly pulling his gun and firing it multiple times — the bright muzzle flashes vivid markers of the bullets that presumably killed 18-year-old Aidan Knowles and critically wounded 16-year-old Brady Clark on Jan. 17 at The Hawk bar in Lawrence.

The video did not show the victims but was perhaps the state’s most graphic piece of evidence Tuesday — amid evidence that included Clark’s own testimony, other soundless videos and nearly a dozen people testifying about the chaos and fear that night at closing time both before and after shots first rang out from a different gunman.

Clark, who turned 17 this week, took the witness stand with a black sling on his left arm. He testified that he had recently undergone surgery after being shot in the torso that night. He remembered going to The Hawk with three unarmed friends, including Knowles, and meeting some other people at the bar, including defendant Caiden Clem, whom he said he knew through a cousin. Apart from that, he remembered little of the evening — not even being outside, where he was shot.

“I remember feeling a sharp pain in my stomach, but that’s it, that’s all I remember,” he said.

The defendants in the case — Daitron Daniels Strickland, 18, of Shawnee, and Clem, 18, of Atchison — appeared together in court with their attorneys for a preliminary hearing and, in Daniels Strickland’s case, an immunity hearing pursuant to his claim that he acted in self-defense.

Less than two hours into the proceedings, however, Clem waived his right to a preliminary hearing and was escorted back to jail. A consequence of his waiver is that Judge Amy Hanley found probable cause to order him to stand trial on all five felonies against him. He will now be arraigned on March 5 — but under an amended complaint that dropped the most serious charge against him: felony murder.

Clem now faces four counts of aggravated assault and one count of criminal possession of a weapon by a felon. At the beginning of the hearing, prosecutor Eve Kemple introduced evidence of previous convictions for burglary and criminal threat for Clem and Daniels Strickland, respectively.

Daniels Strickland, meanwhile, faces far more serious charges of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, criminal possession of a firearm by a felon and misdemeanor battery, according to an amended complaint recently filed by the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office.

A parade of witnesses testified on Tuesday about fighting that occurred indoors as bouncers were struggling to clear the bar at closing time; about an argument over a cellphone; and about gunshots they witnessed moments later. One man — Maddox Myer, 17 — said he was standing next to Knowles when he was shot to death and also next to Clark, who was critically wounded. Myer said he initially believed he had been hit too.

“I was convinced I was shot, I just didn’t feel it yet,” he told the court after describing how he had heard five to eight gunshots fired in his direction as Daniels Strickland was facing the three. Knowles fell to the ground immediately, he said, and Clark “folded in half,” letting out a “deep exhale.”

Myer saw blood around Knowles’ head. Then “I ran,” he said, adding that he saw Daniels Strickland tuck his gun back into his pants and run in the opposite direction.

After Clem’s departure from the courtroom, the state played three surveillance videos collected from The Hawk. In one video a man in black, allegedly Daniels Strickland, is seen turning and firing a handgun toward the bar, then fleeing. The video did not capture the target of the gunfire.

Daniels Strickland has said to police that he fired his gun in self-defense after he heard gunshots nearby and didn’t know where they came from. But witnesses indicated that the gunfire came from his friend Clem shooting into the air. No one testified that Clem pointed his gun anywhere but up.

Lawrence Police Detective Kimberlee Nicholson, who interviewed Daniels Strickland at police headquarters after he reportedly waived his Miranda rights, testified that he initially lied to her, but then confirmed he was the man in a video she showed him. She said that he denied pointing the gun at anyone and only fired the weapon upward because he was scared and thought it would prevent people “coming at him.” He told her he had been in similar situations where people, including his brother, were shot when they heard gunfire and didn’t shoot back.

When told that he hadn’t fired into the air — because people had been hit — and asked why he didn’t just walk away, she said he told her, “I don’t play that bullshit.”

Other videos played for the court showed a chaotic scene as Hawk staff attempted to clear the bar at closing time, with people pushing and shoving and coming and going. Witnesses had testified that Clem pulled a gun on one doorman and put a gun to the head of a bouncer during the commotion — before he went outside and fired shots into the air.

“I was scared for my life,” the bouncer testified, adding that he was hit on the head by someone in the melee and heard gunshots as he closed the bar’s door.

Clem, wearing bright orange, was forced out of the bar, and witnesses said that once outside he fired multiple shots into the air as he walked away from the bar and across the street. In a video taken from inside the bar and looking out, a man is seen quickly pulling the front door shut and holding it closed before running out of view into the bar. Bar employees testified that they fearfully took cover at the sound of gunshots.

In addition to witness testimony, the court — but not the gallery — viewed autopsy photos of Knowles that indicated he had been shot multiple times, including in the head and abdomen, as well as photos of Clark’s injuries taken at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri.

The state rested its case Tuesday afternoon, and the second part of the hearing is scheduled for March 5, at which time Judge Hanley will decide whether Daniels Strickland will be immune from prosecution and whether he will stand trial.

The continuance to a second day was requested by defense attorney Razmi Tahirkheli, who said he had received 149 videos from the state and had not had sufficient time to review all of the evidence.

Clem and Daniels Strickland are both being held in the Douglas County Jail on bonds of $1 million.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Caiden Clem, standing, and Daitron Daniels Strickland appear Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, in Douglas County District Court with attorneys Carl Cornwell, left, and Razmi Tahirkheli.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Daitron Daniels Strickland appears Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, in Douglas County District Court.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Caiden Clem appears Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, in Douglas County District Court.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Daitron Daniels Strickland appears Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, in Douglas County District Court.