Sandusky grad eyewitness at Jacksonville shooting rampage

SANDUSKY — When Brian Delph, a 2001 Sandusky graduate, ran from gunshots in Jacksonville, Fla., he prayed he wouldn't be shot in the back and he'd make it home to his son.Delph, a professional Madden player, was at the GLHF Game Bar in the restaurant Chicago Pizza for a tournament. The event was sanctioned by Electronic Arts (EA), the developer of the Madden football video games, and top two finishers that day would qualify for a larger tournament in Las Vegas.He was watching a friend's game when the suspected shooter, 24-year-old David Katz, walked past him."I wasn't looking, but then I heard a loud pop and I thought the TV had blown up because I saw sparks and smoke," Delph said.Delph's immediate instinct was to run. Then he heard more gunshots but this time the shots were more strategic, as if the shooter was targeting people, Delph said."There were so many people just littered on the ground," he said. "People were shoving and falling. I was running and just hoped I didn't get shot in the back."The tournament lacked the security Delph normally sees at tournaments and IDs weren't checked, which meant the room was likely beyond capacity creating a bottleneck as people tried rushing for the exit. Delph got knocked around suffering injuries to his knee and elbow.The exit became too crowded so Delph hid in the women's restroom with 15 other people, but if the shooter came in there'd be no where to go. They tried barricading the door but there was nothing to use to block it."We decided if he came through the door, we were just going to have to rush him," Delph said.Delph made a phone call to 911, but with every question they asked he began to fear the shooter would hear him."They asked too many questions. They just should have gotten there," Delph said. "I kept telling them I can't keep talking the shooter may hear me."Delph and the other people in the restroom refused to leave until they had a police escort out of fear the shooter may still be there. He called a friend who brought a police officer to the bathroom.When his friend got to the bathroom with the officer, he told Delph to not look, he wouldn't want to see."People were just dead, man," Delph said. "There was blood and (brain matter)."The identity of the shooter hadn't been confirmed so the police took everyone to a room and split them up by people who said they saw something and people who said they only heard it. Delph said some of the people had bags that weren't checked. He feared the shooter could be in there with them."Not once did they search anyone and they were being rude," Delph said. "I asked for an icepack and they told me the room was cold enough. I had to go the hospital afterward."In Facebook live video Delph recorded after the shooting, vicitms are carried out on stretches and woman can be seen crying on the ground as police officers seperate the witnesses.When the smoke finally settled, Katz killed Taylor Robinson, 27, and Eli Clayton, 22, as well as wounding 10 others before he took his own life. Delph knew each victim."I knew everybody. We're a tight knit community," Delph said. "We are like family. I can't stop thinking what could I have done to stop it? Why them and not me? But I also kept thinking of my son. He had his first football scrimmage in Columbus and I missed it to go to the tournament."Delph regularly played Madden with Robinson and they often spoke online."Taylor was the nicest person I've ever met in my life. The game can become frustrating and people get upset when things don't go there way, but I never saw him get mad and he was always smiling," Delph said.But when Delph spoke to Robinson in person the day before the shooting, Madden barely came up instead they spoke about their families."His son had just been born and we were talking about the videos I posted of my son playing football," Delph said. "We talked about real life nothing about Madden."Clayton was new to the professional Madden tournaments but he was bright talent who the rest of the players quickly accepted into their ranks."He was really quiet but never really got into it with anybody. He just wanted to play," Delph said. "He was an up and coming player and looked like he was on pace to win the tournament."Delph says Katz was an outlier of the community who'd won a tournament, but no one really knew him."He was a player in the tournament and he lost," Delph said. "He had a gun with him in his bag and I guess he planned to shoot the place if he lost."Delph said the security was lax for a tournament, which brought some of the best players in the country and no one ever checked Katz's bag."You have top tier players coming in there from across the country and there needs to be security because you don't know who doesn't like us or who is mad at us," Delph said. "This is one of the first times I went to a major event when there isn't security."Police haven't released a motive for the shooting, but Delph believes the shooter intended to kill Clayton before anyone else."The first shot he took was the one that killed (Clayton)," Delph said. "He had the laser (sight) on his head. He really meant to kill him. I think he targeted the first few and then everybody else was just the bullets he had left. Everybody was saying he was messed up mentally.Delph says he hasn't received a call from EA or the venue on how the security was handled or to see how the other players are doing."I just want to say thoughts and prayers to the families, the victims and everyone involved," Delph said. "They died doing something they loved."Reach reporter Michael Harrington at michaelharrington@sanduskyregister.com, follow the Register at Facebook.com/SanduskyRegisterBrian Delph in 2007 when he represented the San Diego Chargers in Madden Nation on ESPNDelph's Facebook live video after the shooting shows one of the victims being pushed on a stretcher.A police officer addresses Delph and the other witnesses of the Jacksonville shooting in Delph's Facebook live video.