3 dead in Mass. strip club shooting

Cabdriver Nick Santiago was outside the Foxy Lady early Tuesday when he saw two women pulling a bloodied man out the strip club's front door. A man wearing a black suit and bulletproof vest was holding a gun to the women as he propped open the door for them.

"I saw two girls screaming, telling the guy who had the gun not to shoot them," Santiago said. "Obviously, the gunman saw me and told me to get the hell out of there before I get shot."

Within minutes, the shooter _ who had been kicked out of the club after his relationship with a bartender soured _ had killed two people inside and himself, police and the club's owner said.

The attacker, identified by police as 35-year-old Scott Medeiros, had gone to the club near closing time, around 2:30 a.m., wearing SWAT gear and toting a high-powered rifle and a semiautomatic weapon, police Capt. Richard Spirlet said.

Medeiros wounded three other people, including two responding police officers whose cruiser he sprayed with bullets, and exchanged gunfire with officers for at least 10 minutes, Spirlet said.

One of the bullet-riddled cruisers was used as a rolling shield for people as they escaped across a parking lot, he said.

Medeiros spoke with dispatchers during the standoff, though Spirlet would not say how long they spoke or what was said.

The two men killed in the attack were his nephew, Tory Marandos, 30, who was managing the club, and a security guard, Bobby Carreiro, said club owner Tom Tsoumas. The bartender with whom the gunman had a relationship was not in the club.

"We had told this young man not to come near the club" because of the tensions with the bartender, Tsoumas said.

Carreiro had told the man: "'This isn't the place for you. She doesn't want to see you. It's only going to cause problems.'" he said.

One officer got shrapnel in the eye after he arrived with his partner and Medeiros sprayed the car with bullets, Spirlet said. The officer, whose partner was also hurt, immediately threw the car into gear and escaped, Spirlet said.

Doctors said the officer may suffer vision loss, Spirlet said.

A man inside the club was shot in both legs, Spirlet said. A woman also had minor injuries, he said.

Medeiros was familiar with the layout of the club because he had recently installed the security system, Tsoumas said.

Freetown Police Chief Carlton Abbott said Medeiros was issued a weapons license in 2005 that permitted him to buy assault-style military rifles. He was first issued a gun permit in 1991 after he told police he needed a weapon for protection because he carried large sums of money as a salesman, Abbott said.

A police background check, conducted prior to the 2005 licensing, showed that Medeiros had not been convicted of a felony, violent crime or had any restraining orders taken against him, Abbott said.

New Bedford, a historic whaling town of nearly 100,000 residents in southern Massachusetts, was the site of another bar shooting in February. An 18-year-old armed with a hatchet and gun seriously injured three men in a gay bar, fled and killed two people in Arkansas before fatally shooting himself.

In October, a 21-year-old man was charged with attempted murder for allegedly trying to run down two police officers outside the Foxy Lady after an altercation in the club.