Special Report: Five Dead in Ohio

Onstage, Gale drew a Beretta 9mm handgun and headed straight for Abbott. Joe Dameron, bass player for Volume Dealer, thought Gale shouted something about Pantera, but he wasn't sure. "With the feedback, I didn't hear what he said," Dameron said. "I saw him open his mouth to yell something, but I don't know what it was. He just looked determined." Gale shot Abbott — who was headbanging, his hair in his face — at least once in the forehead. "Dime was doing his thing," said Aaron Benner, a fan who was standing nearby. "He gets really into it, so he was blindsided."

Cautela, who was tending bar, thought firecrackers had gone off. Others figured the speakers had popped or somebody had fired a cap gun. "I thought they were playing a big gimmick," said Ryan Melchiore, who was working security. "People were pumping their fists, thinking it was a hoax." Cautela kept pouring drinks.

The music stopped; drummer Vinnie Abbott, Darrell's brother, stood up behind his kit. Abbott's guitar began to emit feedback in a high-pitched shriek.

A security guard tackled Gale, who continued to shoot into the crowd. One bullet grazed the arm of a Volume Dealer roadie, Travis Burnett, a burly former soldier who dropped his beer and ran toward the stage to try and disarm the shooter. "I asked him, 'Dude, what the fuck are you doing?'" Burnett said. "He was like, 'Get out of here, get away.' As I went to grab him, he shot at me. The bullet went through my shirt, and I didn't even feel it."

Darrell Abbott lay on the stage, bleeding from his head. While most fans fled, one concertgoer, Mindy Reece, a registered nurse from Columbus, rushed forward. "I said, 'Fuck this, I'm a nurse,'" said Reece. "'He needs help.' I did chest compressions for fifteen to twenty minutes. I kept saying, 'Dimebag, come on, come on, please, stay with me.'" Abbott was near death by the time paramedics arrived.

From the backstage area, Officer James Niggemeyer appeared, carrying a twelve-gauge Remington shotgun. He walked past a stack of amplifiers and saw Gale, who had taken a male hostage. Holding his gun to the unidentified man's head, Gale began moving toward the rear of the club. From twenty feet away, Niggemeyer fired once, killing Gale.

Nathan Gale, according to people in Marysville, was troubled, but not prone to violence. He enlisted in the Marines in 2002 but left the Corps, for as yet unknown reasons, eighteen months later. He worked on construction sites; in an oil-change shop, Minit Lube; and as a landscaper. Gale also played offensive guard for Lima Thunder, a local semipro football team. On the team bus, Gale could often be found with his headphones on, listening to Pantera.

On November 17th, at 3:20 A.M., police arrested Gale for driving with a suspended license. By then, friends told the Columbus Dispatch, Gale had changed; he'd begun talking and laughing to himself. He told a friend that Pantera had stolen his songs and that he was going to sue them.

Lucas Bender, manager of Bear's Den Tattoo in Marysville, across the street from Gale's house, said Gale was a frequent visitor. "He got a tattoo on his right or left forearm, a big custom-design tribal," said Bender. "He also got his ear pierced about a week or two ago. He came in on a daily basis. I tried to keep him away from the clientele; he kind of gave everyone a weird impression."

Bender said Gale told him he'd left the Marines due to mental problems, was taking medication and may have been bipolar. "Nathan was infatuated with guitarists," said Bender. "One of our tattoo artists plays guitar, and Nathan started trying to hang out with him."

As police officers and detectives flooded the Alrosa Villa on December 8th, Vinnie Abbott escaped into the Damageplan tour bus. He climbed into Dimebag's bunk and wept.

"Damageplan loved us," lamented Billy Payne, the Volume Dealer singer. "They told us to stay after the show, they were going to talk to us and have drinks with us. It was a local band's dream maybe coming true — turned into a nightmare."

Additional Reporting by Andy Greene, Brian Hiatt and Bill Werde

[From Issue 964-65 — December 30, 2004-January 13, 2005]