"His ability to get there so quickly probably saved more lives," said Mercurio -- a sentiment shared by some concertgoers. When the shooting started, fans hurried to the exits, but police soon stopped them and took statements from 250 witnesses on buses brought in for the purpose.
"It was pretty quiet on the bus," said Windzigl, who said he wasn't free to leave until 4 a.m. "We were just all in shock."
Paramedics work on one of seven shooting victims at the Alrosa Villa nightclub in Columbus, Ohio. Five people died, including the gunman.
(James Decamp -- Columbus Dispatch Via AP)
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Heavy metal guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott and three others were gunned down during a concert in an Ohio night club.
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Five died, including Gale and Abbott. Mercurio identified two others as Nathan Bray, 23, and Erin Halk, 29. The other victim's name was not released by police.
Darrell Lance Abbott was born in Dallas, the son of country-western songwriter Jerry Abbott. He quickly moved toward hard rock and then heavy-metal music, entering local guitar competitions, shredding the night with lightning riffs. By the early 1980s, he formed Pantera with his brother, who changed his name to Vinnie Paul, and bassist Rex Smith.
The group was first influenced by the theatrical look of Motley Crue and the sound of Def Leppard and Judas Priest, but it soon gained prominence as one of the world's most intense metal bands. With Terry Glaze, the band's first frontman, they churned out three albums, starting with "Metal Magic" in 1983, before Glaze bowed out.
With Phil Anselmo, the band shifted from a pop-metal image to a more heavy-metal one, more like Metallica and Black Sabbath, becoming a predecessor to Korn and the alternative metal movement. The album considered definitive Pantera was "Vulgar Display of Power." In 1994, "Far Beyond Driven" rose to No. 1 on the Billboard charts.
Pantera was nominated for Grammys for the best metal performance in 1995 for "I'm Broken" and, six years later, for "Revolution Is My Name," before the band split. Early last year, the Abbott brothers formed Damageplan, working on new tracks in Darrell's home studio in Dallas. Their first album came out in February. They called it "New Found Power."
Interviewed about the new band, Vinnie told the Dallas Morning News in October that it plays some Pantera songs along with the new material.
"It took a while for some of the Pantera fans to accept it," he said. "We knew that was going to be the case. Change is something that people have a hard time accepting."
Lydersen is a special correspondent. Slevin reported from Washington. Staff writer Jose Antonio Vargas and researcher Karl Evanzz in Washington contributed to this report.
