NORTH COLLEGE HILL, Ohio — One person is dead and another is injured following a shooting at Fricker's Bar and Grill on Sunday, according to the North College Hill Police Department.
Around 5 p.m. Sunday, officers responded to the restaurant on Goodman Avenue for a report of two people being shot.
A 911 call obtained by WCPO 9 captures the moments leading up to the gunfire. The caller told a dispatcher people were fighting outside the restaurant and that she saw guns.
"I'm not going back out there," the caller told the dispatcher after saying she ran back inside when she saw a gun.
She later told the dispatcher that two people had guns in the parking lot.
About a minute into the call, the situation escalated.
"Shots are just fired. Shots are fired. Shots are fired," the caller said.
At the scene, police found one man who had been shot multiple times and another person with a gunshot wound to the arm. Both were taken to UC Medical Center.
North College Hill police said Donald Jamar Hales died despite life-saving efforts.
WATCH: The North College Hill community remembers man shot and killed outside bar
For Hales' friends, the shooting turned an afternoon centered around football into tragedy.
Voiselle Dunn told us he was with Hales at Fricker's shortly before the shooting. Dunn said the two had been watching the Bengals-Steelers game together on the patio and took a photo before Dunn went inside to watch the New Orleans Saints game.
Dunn said he and Hales bonded over their shared love of the Saints after meeting about four years ago at the Kroger where Hales worked.
Dunn said he initially did not realize Hales was involved in the commotion outside. He stayed inside as people warned there was a gun and later saw police lights outside. It wasn't until he eventually walked outside that he learned his friend had been shot.
"I couldn't believe it," Dunn said. "Donnie is not a troublemaker, nothing like that. He likes sports. He likes football."
Dunn described Hales as a hardworking man, licensed chef and loving father who was "full of energy." He said Hales had two daughters and a son.
Another longtime friend, Joe Matheis, returned to Fricker's Monday carrying black and gold balloons.
He left them outside the bar in honor of Hales and his love for the Saints.
"It's the only way," Matheis said of the tribute. "It hurts. They took a good one."
Matheis said he and Hales had known each other for about three decades. They lived on the same street and were part of a tight-knit group of friends who remained close into adulthood.
"About nine of us still together to today, but we lost one," Matheis said.
He described Hales as "like a little brother I never had."
Matheis remembered years filled with "a lot of fun, a lot of joy, a lot of love." He said Hales was the life of the party, loved to cook and feed his friends and rarely missed an opportunity to show his support for the Saints.
But standing outside the place where his longtime friend was killed, Matheis kept returning to one word: "senseless."
"He ain't deserve that. In my eyes, nobody does," Matheis said. "It's a lot of senseless killings going on. Gun violence needs to stop."
He said he now plans to carry his friend's memory with him and be strong for Hales' family, children and the group of friends they shared.
"Hold on to them great memories. Hold on to them laughs," Matheis said. "Just do it for Donnie... carry his legacy and keep it going."
The shooting remains under investigation, according to North College Hill police. Police have not publicly identified a suspect or said what led up to the gunfire.
