Tensions were high at the site of the Oregon District shooting Wednesday morning, where a crowd of about 150 people waited for President Donald Trump’s arrival in Dayton.
Screaming matches broke out just steps away from flowers memorializing the nine people who were killed by a lone gunman Sunday.
Police, occupied by the president’s visit to a nearby hospital, were initially not at the scene.
Before officers arrived to calm the melee, City Commissioner Chris Shaw tried to de-escalate the conflict on his own by standing between the two groups.
Mayor Nan Whaley says the shooting site had been peaceful since the shooting up until the president’s arrival in the city.
“We had a vigil on Sunday night. We've had days that there's been no trouble. And then Donald Trump comes," she says. "It's not like there's been any issues there until Donald Trump came.”
Whaley and U.S. Sen Sherrod Brown greeted Trump when he arrived in Dayton.
Whaley says they lobbied the president to pursue a ban on military-style weapons.
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