Richard's Bar Patron Gives Eyewitness Account of Saturday's Shootings in San Angelo (with audio)

A patron of Richard’s Bar who had just left the establishment early Friday morning told us what he witnessed before and after the shootings.

He would not identify himself, but said that he had left the crowded bar sometime after midnight and returned to the scene after hearing “firecrackers.”

“I’d just left when all the policemen showed up,” the witness aid. “And they blocked off all the streets up here and down there.”

The witness said he heard the shots. “I thought it was firecrackers,” he said.

In the bar before the shootings, the witness said that the crowd was unusually young. “There were so many youngsters up in there. I’ve never seen that many youngsters up in there,” he said.

The bar was crowded he added, “Quite a few. As much as there always have been because that bar down there don’t open until about Monday,” he said. “So everyone goes down here [to Richard’s].”

Friday morning at approximately 2 a.m. Jessie Fitchett opened fire on a group of bar patrons just after they left Richard’s while they were walking near the intersection of 12th St. and Martin Luther King Dr. Police say Fitchett killed two men in their 20s and injured another male. Police have not identified the victims yet.

Saturday afternoon, approximately 12 hours after the altercation in front of the bar, Fitchett killed himself in a two-hour standoff with the San Angelo Police SWAT team at 123 W. 8th St., not far from where the shootings happened.

Listen to the audio here:

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