Investigators found 72 shell casings from five different guns following an early morning shootout near the Railyard in downtown Lincoln last month, police alleged in new court filings.
Police believe that many of those rounds — if not all of them — were fired by members of rival gangs with ties to Omaha and Clarksdale, Mississippi, whose alleged violence spilled into the Haymarket at around 2 a.m. April 2, according to the court filings.
Only one man — 34-year-old Louis Benson — has been arrested for his alleged role in the shootout.
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Prosecutors charged the Lincoln man with possession of a firearm by a prohibited person after police found a Glock semiautomatic handgun in his 2019 Dodge Charger, which was riddled with bullet holes in the 600 block of Canopy Street when police responded that morning, according to court filings.
In a search warrant filed Tuesday, Lincoln Police Investigator Jon Rennerfeldt said police reviewed surveillance footage that showed Benson entering the Railyard bar Longwell’s at 12:25 a.m. April 2 with a group of around 10 people.
On his way into the bar, Rennerfeldt said, the video showed Benson dapping up, or greeting, a man in a red hoodie — later identified as a member of the Jaynes Street Bloods in Omaha, according to the search warrant.
Benson left the bar just before 2 a.m. and walked south along Canopy Street toward his car, but stopped in front of a maroon Chevrolet Tahoe parked nearby, Rennerfeldt said.
Then came the shootout, which police believe involved Benson and the group inside the Tahoe, according to the search warrant.
Rennerfeldt said the video’s framerate was too slow to show the gunfire exchange, but the footage showed Benson run onto the sidewalk to the east of Canopy Street just before the Tahoe sped north, crashing into vehicles parked near the Railyard.
In a crash report filed in the incident, police identified the owner of the Tahoe — which was damaged by gunfire in the shootout — as an Omaha woman, but listed the driver as “unknown.†The crash caused damage to five other cars parked along Canopy Street.
Two men got out of the SUV and ran north as Benson fled south on foot toward P Street, Rennerfeldt said.
One of them — the same Jaynes Street Blood member who had interacted with Benson at Longwells — was later seen on video throwing a Glock handgun into a nearby dumpster.
Benson returned to the scene as police converged on the Haymarket to retrieve his car, telling police he had been asleep in the backseat when the shootout occurred — a claim Rennerfeldt said is disputed by video evidence.
Gang investigators believe Benson, who moved to Lincoln from Mississippi, is a member of The Black Disciples and had been the subject of threats from a rival gang in Clarksdale, the Black P Stones, before he fled to Nebraska, Rennerfeldt said in the search warrant.
Police believe the P Stones had worked with members of the Jaynes Street Bloods to coordinate a hit on Benson, Rennerfeldt said.
A Lancaster County judge signed the search warrant sought by police for the contents of a phone found in Benson’s car.
Benson — the only suspected shooter in custody — remains at the Lancaster County jail, where he is being held on a $500,000 percentage bond. He must pay $50,000 to be released.
Three of the guns used in the shooting remain unaccounted for, Rennerfeldt said.
When police arrested Benson in mid-April, the department said investigators were still searching for additional suspects.