KSHB 41 reporter Fernanda Silva covers stories in the Northland. She also focuses on issues surrounding immigration. Share your story idea with Fernanda.
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A deadly shooting over the weekend at the Jayhawk Cafe shocked University of Kansas students.
Lawrence police said two shooting victims were found on the patio of the bar, better known as The Hawk, in the early hours of Saturday.
Daly Steinhauser lives next door to The Hawk. That night, he was at another popular Lawrence bar, The Wheel, just down the street.
He didn’t hear the shooting, but it didn’t take long for him to learn what happened.
“My phone started blowing up. First, with people asking if I was OK," Steinhauser said. "I was a little confused about that because I didn’t really realize what was going on at first. It does make you realize that crazy stuff can happen.”
The shooting took place where his friends work as bartenders, so he was concerned about them.
“I wanted to know who the victims were,” he said.
Family members identified the 18-year-old killed in the shooting as Aidan Knowles.
Aidan’s dad wrote in a Facebook post that his son was “in the wrong place at the wrong time."
The other victim, who suffered critical injuries, was identified as 16-year-old Brady Clark. Brady’s family called the shooting a “senseless act of violence.”
According to a witness, the shooting happened outside the bar around closing time.
A police spokesperson confirmed the victims "were, at some point, inside the bar," but the department has yet to share details of what led to the shooting.
The spokesperson told KSHB 41's Fernanda Silva she will answer some of our questions after the holiday.
Sophomore Charlie Wright was hanging out in a friend's basement across the street when the gunfire rang out.
“We heard a lot of commotion upstairs, like people moving around and whatnot,” Wright said. “I got upstairs, I saw police lights through the window of the house. And they were like, somebody [was] just shot outside.”
Wright said the tragedy was shocking.
“Lawrence feels like a pretty safe place, and for that to happen literally right outside the house where a bunch of my friends live is shocking," he said.
Like other students, Jesse Gutierrez had just returned to Lawrence for the new semester.
“I was honestly just in shock,” he said, recalling when he received text messages about the incident.
He’s going back to classes on Tuesday, still processing what happened.
“You wouldn’t expect it to happen so close to your house,” Gutierrez said.
But for those who were there, the weight might be heavier to carry.
“Not only what they deal with … but some of the emotional trauma that comes after the fact, and dealing with that,” Steinhauser said.
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