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.

After a group of young men were escorted out of a Lawrence bar for being underage, they met up with a KU student and bought wristbands from him that purported to show they were at least 21 and that enabled their entry. Two hours later, the group would be connected to two shootings at the bar, one of them fatal.

That’s according to the partially redacted arrest affidavit for Hunter J. Noravong, the KU student who allegedly provided the illegal wristbands. Noravong has been charged with four counts of “purchase or consumption of alcoholic beverage by a minor,” a Class C nonperson misdemeanor. Noravong’s girlfriend had reportedly posted on Snapchat “hit me up for wristbands to the hawk,” a reference to The Hawk, a popular college bar in the 1300 block of Ohio Street, where two teens were shot on Jan. 17.

Aidan Knowles, 18, died at the scene, and 16-year-old Brady Clark, who has since turned 17, was critically wounded. Clark was a member of the group who purchased the wristbands, according to the affidavit, which was prepared by an agent with Alcoholic Beverage Control, a state agency within the Kansas Department of Revenue.

Daitron Daniels Strickland and Caiden Clem, both 19 now but 18 at the time, have been charged in connection with the shootings — Daniels Strickland with first-degree murder and attempted murder among other crimes, Clem with multiple counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Both men were convicted felons at the time and were not allowed to possess guns.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

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

The affidavit, relying heavily on footage from combined camera systems at The Hawk and in the area, provides a timeline of how the evening’s events unfolded.

Around 10:50 p.m., nine males are seen trying to get into The Hawk, but staff turns them away. One of those males is Clem, whose name is redacted in the affidavit, but who is identified as wearing an orange sweatsuit — an outfit exclusively associated with Clem in other court documents and testimony.

Ten minutes after the rejection, the males go to a side door on 14th Street, and a Hawk patron opens the door to let them in. A few minutes later, though, they are escorted out.

The group then walks to an alley on the north side of 14th Street, where the driver of a dark-colored compact SUV — reportedly Noravong — stops and talks with them. Shortly thereafter, around 11:45 p.m., the group is back at The Hawk wearing blue wristbands — reportedly purchased for $20 — to indicate, falsely, that they are 21 and can legally buy alcohol. Clem is captured on camera ordering a drink, according to the affidavit, and the state investigator was later told that “all members of the underage group had consumed alcoholic beverages inside of The Hawk that night.”

It’s not clear why a group that had previously been rejected as underage would so soon after be admitted. The Hawk has not returned calls regarding its admission practices.

Shortly before 2 a.m. the group is asked to leave because the bar is about to close, but an argument ensues and turns into a fight between the group and bar staff. Clem allegedly pulls out a semi-automatic pistol, and as he’s being escorted out points it at the head of a bar manager. Clem is eventually forced from the premises but as he is leaving he fires his gun several times into the air.

One of the men in the group wearing tan pants and a black coat then is seen on camera “shooting into the crowd,” striking Knowles and Clark. The man’s name is redacted in the affidavit, but he has been identified in other documents and testimony as Daniels Strickland.

Noravong was not affiliated with The Hawk, according to the affidavit, but he was positively identified by three different people from the underage group as having sold wristbands to them so that they could drink.

The criminal complaint alleges that he sold a wristband to four individuals with the initials BC (born in 2009), DC (born in 2008), CA (born in 2008) and JG (born in 2010).

When police went to Noravong’s Lawrence address on Feb. 11, they were told that he didn’t live there. When police went to his parents’ address in the Kansas City area, they saw a vehicle in the driveway that was consistent with the vehicle seen in the camera footage from the night of the shooting. The parents, though, told police that their son lived in Lawrence, but they would not provide an address for him.

Later, a lawyer for Noravong contacted police, and Noravong appeared before a judge on July 10 to answer the charges. He pleaded not guilty, and an own-recognizance bond was set at $500. He is next scheduled to appear for a status conference on Sept. 14.

He is listed in court records as having been born in 2006 and as residing in Shawnee Mission. According to his LinkedIn page, he’s a computer engineering student at KU, where he has been enrolled since 2024.

Daniels Strickland and Clem, who are each being held on $1 million bond in the Douglas County Jail, are scheduled to next appear in court later this summer.