Mass Shooting in VA Gay Bar

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Mass Shooting in VA Gay Bar
PlanetOut News Staff
Monday, September 25, 2000 / 03:14 AM
One person is dead and six were wounded when a man called Gay opened fire in a Roanoke bar because people made fun of his name.

Danny Overstreet and John Collins were just completing a friendly hug in Roanoke, Virginia's gay bar the Back Street Cafe near midnight September 22, when a bearded man in a black trenchcoat who'd come in and ordered a beer just minutes before pulled a 9 mm handgun from his pocket and quickly fired eight rounds into the crowd of 25 - 50, wounding Overstreet, Collins and five others. The bearded man lowered his weapon, walked out the door without having spoken a single word, dumped the gun in a trashbasket, and calmly raised his arms when police accosted him two blocks away. Inside the bar, everyone tried to help the wounded, but Overstreet, 43, hit in the chest, was dead in minutes.

Ronald Edward Gay, 53 was arraigned for first degree murder in Overstreet's death on September 25; additional charges are expected. As of September 25, two victims were still hospitalized: Collins, 39, shot in the abdomen but in stable condition, and Iris Page Webb, 44, in critical condition from a bullet in the neck. Two large gatherings have been held so far to mourn and plan, with another scheduled for September 28.

The Wounded and the Dead
The five other shooting victims were Kathy Caldwell, 36; Linda Conyers, 41; Susan Smith, 45; and Joel Tucker, 40, who is not gay but was visiting the bar with friends. Tucker was shot in the lower back, and the bullet will remain alongside his spine because doctors have determined it would be more damaging to remove it. Smith took a bullet in the leg that exited through her buttocks. Conyers was shot in her right arm and hand. Caldwell was shot in the left hand and right shoulder.

Overstreet went fairly often to the Back Street Cafe, not to drink but to socialize. A pudgy man with a quick and hearty laugh, he was close with his family and doted on his poodle. He lived a quiet life, keeping his home immaculately maintained, working as a telephone operator for Verizon, and in no way becoming politically involved in gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender or other issues. Certainly none of his acquaintances ever expected him to fall victim to a violent crime.

Suspect Wanted to Get Rid of "Faggots"
Roanoke police say Gay admitted the shooting in a confession that was videotaped and will be used against him in court. Police Lieutenant William Althoff told reporters, "He admits to shooting people. He said he was shooting people to get rid of, in his term, 'faggots.' He told us people made fun of his name. ... He told us that he was upset about that." Gay is being held without bail in the Roanoke City Jail, where he is described as a calm and cooperative inmate.

Police had some warning of what was to come. Sometime between 11 and 11:30 p.m., Gay had asked a staffer at the Corned Beef & Co. tavern where the nearest gay bar was, and that worker gave him directions -- not to the Back Street Cafe, but to The Park. (Both are on Salem Avenue, three blocks apart; Gay had been known to hang out at two other venues on the same street.) Then Gay showed his gun to the employee, whose name has not been published, and reported said he was going to "waste some faggots." The staffer had colleagues call 911. A police officer arrived at Corned Beef at 11:39 p.m. and broadcast Gay's description at 11:46 -- but the Back Street shooting was called in at 11:51. Police had stopped Gay on the street by midnight.

Gay's identification showed his residence in Citrus Springs, Florida, but he seems to have been in the Roanoke area for about a year. A Vietnam war veteran, he lives on military disability payments for post-traumatic stress syndrome, and according to his family he had for some time been unable to obtain the medications that kept his flashbacks and anxiety under control. Gay has been married and divorced five times. One of his exes, Laura Ramsey, told the Roanoke Times that he was always drunk -- he seems to have been drinking all day on the day of the shooting -- and always carried a gun. She had also obtained a restraining order against him and filed charges against him after he burst into her Florida home in June and assaulted both her husband and herself.

Roanoke's Commonwealth Attorney Don Caldwell told the Times that, "Based on the evidence I've heard, certainly this man is looking at being locked up for the rest of his life." Life imprisonment is the maximum sentence for the first degree murder charge Gay now faces. Caldwell has indicated that should one of the other shooting victims die, that charge will be upgraded to capital murder. Additional charges will likely include malicious wounding and aggravated malicious wounding. However, the Virginia legislature has repeatedly rejected bills to include sexual orientation as a protected category under the state's hate crimes law, while the U.S. Congress has yet to add sexual orientation to federal hate crimes law. Prosecutors will present Gay's case to a grand jury on October 2.

Mourning and Organizing
Roanoke Mayor Ralph Smith and City Manager Darlene Burcham held a news conference on the morning of September 23. Smith said, "I'm shocked and saddened by this terrible, terrible crime. Any time one member of our community is hurt, we all suffer by that same hand." Burcham added, "We do not want this to reflect upon our community at all."

Virginians for Justice, a member group of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, called for a candlelight vigil September 23 outside the Back Street Cafe. More than 300 people attended; the crowd overflowed the sidewalks to the point where police had to close the block to traffic for the assembly. One speaker, Reverend Catherine Houchins of Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) of the Blue Ridge (who along with the church were honored with the Lambda Service Award and Community Service Award at Roanoke's Pride in the Park celebration just a week before) said, "I'm not going back. I didn't come to Roanoke to hide in the closet. Don't grieve like those with no hope." The crowd held hands and sang; activists called for passage of hate crimes legislation for the state and the nation.

Many didn't wait for organized events, but left their own offerings of notes, flowers, balloons and other objects outside the bar. Sunday morning services at the MCC was another occasion of mourning and organizing, with more than sixty people in attendance.

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) field organizers called for a community meeting on September 24 that drew more than 150 people, requiring a change of venue to comply with fire regulations. NGLTF's Dan Hawes said, "When Ronald Gay opened fire at the patrons of the bar, he was clearly trying to send a message that gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people are not entitled to the same rights as other people. But you are sending a much stronger message here tonight. The community will not be victims in downtown Roanoke, and we will stand together until Roanoke is a hate-free community." Hawes also began organizing a fund to support medical care and psychological counseling for those who were shot and those who were present at the Back Street Cafe during the shooting.

Further vigils are expected to continue nightly this week, to climax with coordinated actions around the U.S. on September 28.

In Overstreet's memory on September 24, San Francisco activists Gilbert Baker and Phyllis Burke were to lower to half-mast the Castro District's rainbow flag; the flag was erected in 1977 on the twentieth anniversary of the assassination of gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk.

[Ed. note: The Roanoke Seven Fund can be contacted C/O Christ the Good Shepherd American Catholic Church, P.O. Box 3359, Roanoke, VA 24015.]