Football fan gets thrown back by gunshot during Vista shootout, video shows

Surveillance footage obtained by The State newspaper shows a college football fan being hit by gunfire during a shootout in Columbia’s Vista district in September.

Nine people were injured when gunfire erupted in the popular nightlife district in the early hours of Sept. 16. Denise Massey, a University of Kentucky football fan who was in Columbia with her fiancee for the Kentucky-South Carolina game that weekend, was shot in the face.

Video provided by The Oyster Bar Columbia shows Massey and her fiancee, Jimmy Brannon, socializing with two other people in front of the Park Street business. The camera, mounted on the front of the building, captures them looking toward Gervais Street as the first shots rang out just after 2 a.m. more than a block away, in front of the Empire Supper Club at Park and Lady streets.

As others appear to take cover or get down, Massey is seen apparently starting to duck down when she is shot. The force of the round, which hit her in the right cheek, knocks her out of the camera’s frame, her legs still visible as she lays on the sidewalk.

Bystanders are seen rushing to help Massey, with one man pulling off his shirt, presumably to help stop the bleeding. Several bystanders are seen pulling out their cellphones to make calls.

Massey was released from the hospital after 11 days.

Five Newberry County men have been charged in connection with the shooting, two of them each facing seven counts of attempted murder. Two of the suspects were among the injured.

Officials have previously said that a music industry-related beef sparked the violence; however, the Columbia Police Department has said that is not true.

This story was originally published November 16, 2017 at 9:18 AM with the headline "Football fan gets thrown back by gunshot during Vista shootout, video shows."