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Cameo Night Club shooting victim O'Bryan Spikes to be laid to rest

Posted at 9:11 AM, Apr 08, 2017
and last updated 2017-04-08 12:26:08-04

FOREST PARK, Ohio -- The first person to die in the Cameo Night Club shooting will be laid to rest Saturday.

A visitation for O'Bryan Spikes began at 9 a.m. at Inspiration Baptist Church, with the funeral at 11 a.m. A fundraiser for Spikes' funeral expenses has reached more than half its goal of $7,500.

O'bryan Spikes. Photo courtesy Serita Maria

The 27-year-old, nicknamed Lucky, died March 26 at the nightclub in Cincinnati's East End.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said police don't believe Spikes was targeted, but that the mass shooting was the result of a fight that began earlier in the day between two groups, one from Madisonville and another from Price Hill.

"The Madisonville people just left a funeral for a friend of theirs. They were upset that the Price Hill people were there," Deters said. "(At the club), they were aiming their fingers at each other (like a gun). Beckley then got up on a stage... and fired a gun (four times)."

 

Sixteen others also suffered gunshot wounds. One of them, 29-year-old Deondre Davis, died Tuesday at University of Cincinnati Medical Center after his family took him off life support.

Davis was considered one of two suspects in the shooting, but Deters said all charges against him have been dismissed posthumously.

He said Spikes was from the Price Hill group and Davis was in the Madisonville group, but the shooting was not a "turf war."

"They’re just strangers," Deters said. "Someone disrespected somebody. To explain this behavior is way past me."

The other suspect arrested -- 27-year-old Cornell Beckley -- is charged with two counts of murder, as well as a litany of other charges that, according to Deters, could send him to prison for the rest of his life.

The prosecutor described the Cameo incident as a "shootout" and not a "mass shooting."

"This wasn’t like somebody going into a school and trying to create a body count," he said. "These were guys shooting at each other and many innocent people were in between the two."

Deters said Beckley used a .25-caliber revolver and Davis later fired a .40-caliber Glock at least eight times. He said it’s possible there was a third shooter because a 9 mm gun was found at the scene. Police say they recovered 16 casings in the club from Beckley and Davis' weapons as well as from the 9 mm weapon.

Beckley’s attorney, Clyde Bennett, called the case against his client "fundamentally weak."

 

Meanwhile, Davis’ father said he believes his son was innocent and that not all the facts in the shooting have been revealed. But according to Deters, witnesses saw Davis in the act.

For more coverage on the Cameo Night Club shooting, visit WCPO.com/Cameo. Police ask anyone with information in the nightclub shooting to contact Crime Stoppers at 513-352-3040.