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Elmore police officer among 3 men shot to death overnight

Three dead, two taken to hospital in separate shootings

FREMONT — Fremont police are still looking for suspects in a pair of overnight shootings that left three dead and two injured .

Police Chief Tim Wiersma said that the shootings did not appear to be related.

“The person at the Last Call Bar was a very short person and the person at the Night Riders was a very tall person. So, it’s definitely not the same shooter,” Wiersma said.

An off-duty Elmore police officer is among three men shot to death overnight.

Five people were shot in two separate shootings overnight in Fremont. One shooting at Last Call Saloon resulted in the deaths of three men and the hospitalization of another. In another shooting near Night Riders Motorcycle Club, a man was taken by medical helicopter to a Toledo area hospital.

Jose Andy Chavez, 26, an off-duty Elmore police officer, was among three people killed during the shooting.

Police have also now confirmed the names of the other men who were shot.

Ramiro Arreola, 27, was taken by Life Flight to Promedica Toledo Hospital. A spokesman from Promedica Toledo Hospital said Sunday afternoon that Arreola was treated and released.

Ramiro Sanchez, 28, who was a bartender at Last Call Saloon, was killed during the shooting.

Daniel Ramirez, 25, was also killed.

At 1:30 a.m. today, police received a call of shots fired at Last Call Saloon, 531 W. State St. Officers arrived to find that four men had been shot by an unidentified man.

Two of the men were pronounced dead at the scene and a third was pronounced dead at Fremont Memorial Hospital.

“The shooter is still at large,” said Fremont Police Chief Tim Wiersma. “We have several officers out in the area looking. We have a suspect, but not by name.”

State BCI agents were called in to assist and process the scene. The Sandusky County Sheriff’s Department, Ohio Highway Patrol, Gibsonburg Police Department, and Woodville Police also sent officers to the the scene.

Wiersma said that he couldn’t remember a similar situation happening in his 27 years with Fremont’s police department with two shootings taking place less than an hour apart. He said that there were a lot of shootings in the early 1990s in the city that revolved around gang-related drug turf wars, but nothing specifically like what happened early Sunday morning.

Capt. Jim White said the department had two detectives headed to Toledo to conduct interviews on both shootings, with three detectives in Fremont following leads.

White said there were several people in the bar at the time of the shooting, although he didn’t know a firm number.

In a separate incident, at 3:12 a.m. today in the area of the Night Riders Motorcycle Club, 200 Allen St., a report of shots fired was called in. Sometime later, a man showed up at Memorial Hospital with a gunshot wound to the abdomen.

The man who has been identified as Cardell Beachum, 45, was conscious and would give no details of the shooting other than he was shot by a large man that he had never seen before and that he was not aware he had been shot until he reached his home, according to a press release.

Beachum was taken by Life Flight to a Toledo area hospital.

Brenda Bliss lives next door to Night Riders and she said she called the police Sunday morning.

“I heard a bunch of arguing at first. Then I heard a gunshot,” Bliss said.

Bliss said there was one person that fled on foot from the scene. She said that in the four years she’s lived there, there has been several fights and beer bottles being thrown outside the club.

“It’s too much. I don’t know why they can’t close this place,” Bliss said.

Police are following up on leads from witnesses and need more people to come forward with information the shootings, said Wiersma.

“If you know something, you need to say something,” Wiersma said.

Fremont Mayor Jim Ellis said that, unfortunately, shootings like the ones early Sunday morning can happen anywhere. He released a statement Sunday afternoon that stated the city would do anything it could to help the families of the victims and their neighbors.

“It’s just amazing that someone’s willing to do that,” Ellis said.