The rampage that left nine dead in a nightlife district in Dayton, Ohio early Sunday morning was "completely preventable," the city's Mayor Nan Whaley said Monday.
"This summer has been actually a pretty tough summer for the city," Whaley told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "We had 14 tornadoes ravage our community in May, and then to have this, which I believe is a completely preventable act, really tears across our community with more questions than answers."
Whaley, a Democrat, said the shootings were preventable because the gunman was able to murder nine people and injure 26 others in the course of 24 seconds "with a gun that he received legally, with magazines that he received legally."
She said the city's police officers were heroic for running toward a gunman with that kind of weapon, but she "just can't understand why we would need anything like this on our streets, which he obtained legally."
"I think that's the real question for us, and for our police department, why is this necessary?" Whaley said. "We live in southern Ohio. Our community has rifles to hunt with; they have handguns, of course."
It was "lucky" the police officers were able to get to the shooter in just 24 seconds, because had he gotten into the bar where he was going, "hundreds would have been dead [Sunday] morning," the mayor continued.
"Most of these officers, five of them, had only been on duty as police officers in Dayton for three years," Whaley said. "So just imagine, they have been working in Dayton for three years, and this is what they walk into."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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