Winston's Bar Shooting

A 45-year-old man shot a 60-year-old man inside Winston's Bar in Cleveland after the two got into an argument over the 2016 presidential election, police said.

(Cory Shaffer, cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- An argument over presidential politics at an East Side bar ended when a man shot another man in the leg.

The accused shooter, a 45-year-old Cleveland man, has not been formally charged and is not in custody. The 60-year-old shooting victim remained hospitalized as of Tuesday.

The men met on the back patio of Winston's Bar, near East 131st Street and Miles Avenue, about 5 p.m., according to a police report.

The men, who are both regulars at the bar, started talking about the presidential election. It's unclear which candidates the men supported, but the discussion escalated into a shouting match.

The bar's owner jumped in to separate them, and brought the 60 year old into the bar. The 45 year old walked around the outside of the building and through the front door, which has a sticker declaring no firearms are allowed inside the bar.

The argument rekindled.

The 45-year-old man pulled a pistol from his pants and opened fire. His debate partner suffered a single gunshot to the leg.

The shooter then ran out the bar's front door, jumped into a Cadillac truck and drove off, police said.

The man was sentenced in April to 18 months of probation after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge related to a May 7, 2015 incident at the same bar.

He and a woman got into a fight with two other women. The man struck the women with a bottle, according to court records.

The man ran into the Cleveland police detective assigned to his case at Winston's Bar in October after he had posted bond. The officer was off-duty, and the man confronted him.

The man told the officer that he was out of jail, and asked the officer what he wanted to do, according to court records. The officer left the bar and told Cuyahoga County prosecutors about the encounter.

The bar has experienced violence before. In March 2015, 33-year-old Lamar Richards was shot dead in a parking lot next to the bar.

The bar was also the scene of a police-involved shooting in July 2013. A 30-year-old man shot the bar's security guard in the leg after he was thrown out, then shot at responding police officers, according to police. Officers retuned fire, wounding the man.

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