Last Friday’s mass shooting at El Cid Restaurant marked the ninth mass shooting in Lexington since 2014, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a website that tracks shootings nationwide.
The shooting happened around 12:19 a.m. at 701 National Avenue, the site of the former El Cid Restaurant . The building’s owner said the shooter, who got out of the passenger side of a vehicle that pulled up to the restaurant, shot in through an open garage bay door into a packed bar crowd. One person was killed and five more were hurt.
The Gun Violence Archive describes a mass shooting as an incident with at least four gunshot wound victims not including the shooter. Last Friday’s shooting left 31-year-old Antoine Clay dead and five others injured.
Four of the nine shootings included at least one death, and two resulted in an arrest, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Here is a look at the two incidents that ended with an arrest, and the other seven that haven’t:
Mass shootings with arrests
Oct. 1, 2023: Shooting in downtown Lexington
The most recent mass shooting before El Cid happened in October 2023 at the Silks Lounge on North Mill Street in downtown Lexington. Police said officers heard shots fired near the 100 block of Short Street and Mill Street around 1:40 a.m. and soon located four victims with gunshot wounds .
One victim, 25-year-old Evan “Jayson” Smith , was seriously injured in the shooting. Smith was working as a security guard outside of a bar in the area when he tried to disarm someone attempting to get into the bar with a gun after a fight.
The other victims were an 18-year-old female, a 27-year-old female and a 27-year-old male, according to Lexington police.
The shooter, 24-year-old Jamonte Robertson, was arrested at the scene. Police said Robertson was involved in a fight before the shooting.
In December, Robertson was indicted on charges of first-degree assault, three counts of fourth-degree assault, possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, carrying a concealed deadly weapon and second-degree persistent felony offender, according to court records. He is being held at the Fayette County Detention Center on a $50,000 bond.
June 30, 2014: Shooting on Scottsdale Circle
The only other mass shooting over the past 10 years with an arrest happened in June 2014. Kieara Green , 18, was among four women injured in a shooting at a house on Scottsdale Circle. Green died from injuries two days later, but the other three victims recovered.
Allen Burgess, 25, was later arrested and charged with murder. More than four years later was sentenced to five years in prison after entering into an Alford Plea, which means he did not admit guilt but acknowledged prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him if the trial proceeded. He was charged with criminal facilitation to murder.
Prosecutors said they agreed to the reduced charge of criminal facilitation because witnesses were uncooperative. Police previously said Burgess had a long-standing feud with a man who was inside the Scottsdale Circle home at the time of the shooting.
Burgess was tied to the shooting after police found shell casings and a baseball cap in the yard next door to the shooting.
Mass shootings with no arrests
Aug. 9, 2024: El Cid shooting
The most recent mass shooting in Lexington happened on Aug. 9 at El Cid Restaurant on National Avenue. Police said six people were shot and one person, 31-year-old Antoine Clay, later died at a hospital.
The other victims were a 27-year-old female, a 28-year-old female, a 29-year-old female, a 34-year-old female and a 31-year-old male, according to police.
Lexington police are continuing to investigate the shooting, and the FBI is assisting.
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Sept. 10, 2022: Georgetown Road and Parallel Road shooting
An officer was patrolling New Circle Road around 8:30 p.m. when they were flagged down by a vehicle reporting three male victims had been shot. They were transported to a hospital, where a fourth male victim showed up with gunshot wounds.
The victims were 20, 22, 24 and 26, according to police data.
During the investigation, officers were told the shooting happened in the area of Georgetown Road and Parallel Road, south of Citation Boulevard. The incident was one of four shootings that evening.
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Aug. 30, 2022: Dunbar Community Center shooting
Seven people were injured — one critically — at the Dunbar Community Center in August 2022. Police said an ambulance took one victim to the hospital. Six others showed up later at hospitals after being transported by private vehicles.
Several people had gathered at the community center for a cookout, police previously said. The shooting happened near the basketball court, and it appeared multiple people fired shots.
Police identified the victims as six men ages 18, 19, 21, 29, 34 and 40, and a 21-year-old woman.
Aug. 27, 2022: Wild Health Field shooting
Seven people were injured during a private event in August 2022 at Wild Health Field.
Two women were transported to a hospital with gunshot wounds. While they were investigating, police said five more victims, three of whom were women, showed up at local hospitals with gunshot wounds.
The victims’ ages ranged from 22 to 44, according to police data. The incident was one of three shootings that evening.
May 7, 2022: Green Acres Park shooting
The deadliest mass shooting in Lexington since 2014 happened at a park off LaSalle Road in May 2022. Police said they found 20-year-old Amaya Sandifer and 49-year-old James Bost Jr. suffering from gunshot wounds when they responded around 1:15 a.m. to a call for shots fired in the neighborhood. Both died.
Three men also showed up at a hospital with gunshot wounds. Their ages ranged from 18-22 years old, according to police data.
Sandifer’s mother, Priscilla Sandifer, spoke at a press conference about the El Cid mass shooting Thursday. She said her daughter was an innocent bystander dropping off two friends at a birthday party and she had one semester remaining before graduating at Tennessee State University.
“The gun violence is truly an epidemic across the country,” Sandifer said. “The mass shootings have gotten just critically out of hand and there is no control over the young people, maybe even the mentally ill.”
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July 31, 2021: East Fifth Street shooting
The shooting happened around 9:13 p.m. in the 400 block of East Fifth Street. Police previously said officers found five gunshot wound victims, one of whom had life-threatening injuries.
Police didn’t know many details of the shooting at the time, and it was unclear if multiple people had fired shots. The victims’ ages ranged from 15 to 64, according to police data.
The incident was one of three shootings that weekend.
June 21, 2015: Douglass Park shooting
The shooting happened on Father’s Day during the annual Dirt Bowl League tournament, a basketball tournament that has been played in the park since the early 1970s. Kwame El-Amin , 42, and four others were shot.
Kwame was a father of three kids. The shooting remains unsolved.
Anyone with information about the unsolved mass shootings is encouraged to call Lexington police at 859-258-3600. Anonymous tips can be submitted to Bluegrass Crime Stoppers by calling 859-253-2020 or by visiting their website . Anonymous tips can also be submitted through the P3 Tips app at www.p3tips.com .
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