FREMONT — A man shot and killed himself in the parking lot of a packed The Saddle Rack nightclub in Fremont late Wednesday, prompting hundreds to stream out of the building and initially evoking fears of another mass shooting two weeks after a massacre at a country-western bar in Thousand Oaks.

“It was a very intense, scary situation,” patron Jessica Silva wrote in a Facebook message to this news organization. “I had just gotten another drink, went to go sit down at a table near the dance floor when I saw the security literally sprinting to the front door.

“Once security started running into the building yelling ‘get out, get out,’ the music stopped and the band told the crowd to head out the side door,” she added. “Once we were all outside, the crowd just ran.”

The gunfire was reported at 11:43 p.m. after a man exited the venue and fired a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to Fremont police and patrons who were at the nightclub Wednesday. Responding officers found the man in a south parking lot, and applied CPR and tried to revive him, but the man died at the scene.

Suicide Incident – Last night at 11:43 pm, we responded to the Saddle Rack on the report of a shooting. Upon arrival, a male was found in the parking lot suffering from a self-inflicted gun shot wound. Officers immediately rendered first aid, but sadly he didn’t survive. pic.twitter.com/1KK9Kwwzdq — Fremont Police Department (@FremontPD) November 22, 2018

Police added that they found a handgun registered to the man nearby.

“The 911 calls with detailed information helped our officers to very quickly determine this was an isolated incident in the parking lot. There were no other injuries reported,” Fremont police said in a news release. “This is a tragic incident and we send our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the male.”

A musician who performed that night recalled the shooter getting into a verbal argument inside the building moments before he apparently took his own life.

Several patrons of the Boscell Road nightclub said after the gunshot was heard, hundreds of people began to move toward the back exits. Rob Tracy, lead guitarist for the house band Diablo Road, said he was on stage when security guards started instructing people to evacuate the club.

“Security came running in and said, ‘There’s a shooter, everybody out,’” he said. “They took everybody out the back.”

According to club employees and patrons, the club was lively and full Wednesday night when the shooting occurred. Some patrons interviewed for this story also believed it was an active shooter situation at first, and were unsure if it was safe to exit the building, fearing a potential shooter outside.

The Alameda County Sheriff coroner’s bureau and public records indicate that the deceased man is a 34-year-old Santa Cruz resident. This news organization doesn’t typically name people who die by suicide or apparent suicide. Tracy said the man frequented The Saddle Rack and taught dancing there.

People in the parking lot, some of them employees of the club, were seen hugging each other early Thursday morning, and some were crying. Hundreds of people who were in the club milled around on Boscell Road and on sidewalks near the club shortly after the evacuation; many patrons had to leave their cars in the lot as they evacuated.

Early Thursday morning, Fremont police officers could be seen with flashlights examining the club’s parking lot, where a body on the ground lay covered with a yellow tarp. Coroner investigators took custody of the man’s body shortly after 3:30 a.m.

The Saddle Rack, a popular country-themed nightclub, is located in an industrial area of Fremont near the Pacific Commons Shopping Center, and typically offers live music Thursday through Saturday. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is a popular night for bars and nightclubs, due to the convergence of out-of-town college students returning home for the holiday, and has been referred to colloquially as Black Wednesday.

Tracy, the guitarist, was among many inside who initially thought an active shooter situation unfolding, and imagery of the other high-profile mass shootings that have occurred in the United States flashed through his mind.

Exactly two weeks earlier, Marine Corps veteran Ian David Long entered the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks in Southern California and opened fire with a .45-caliber Glock handgun, killing 12 people — including a Ventura County Sheriff’s deputy and seven college students — before fatally shooting himself.

“I was scared (expletive),” he said, adding that he and his girlfriend got separated, but later found each other outside the club. “I’m just a bit shaken.”

Staff writer George Kelly contributed to this report.

Submit a tip

Anyone with information about Wednesday night’s shooting can call Fremont police at 510-790-6800 ext. 3 or send a text message to 888777 starting with “TIP FremontPD” followed by the message.