Cops Think Bar Fight Behind Dallas Drive-By

DALLAS – A scuffle on the dance floor of a crowded college bar apparently spilled out onto a freeway intersection a few hours later, with a motorist opening fire on a car and killing three people.

University Park police Capt. Robert Brown said the shooter waited for the other party to leave the bar, and then followed in a Jaguar and shot at the other vehicle with an assault weapon Monday night.

"Apparently, there was a dispute on the dance floor in which somebody got hit or punched," said Mike Turiace, who was tending bar at Jack's Pub & Volley Ball club (search). "The guy just got angry and decided to pursue it."

Investigators have impounded a Jaguar they believe was involved and authorities continued their search for the gunman, who squeezed through the sunroof to fire his weapon. Two others may have been riding in the light-colored vehicle with the gunman.

Killed were Eddie Pech, 36, and cousins Bernardo Andrade, 21, and Favio Andrade, 19. Police said Osvaldo Juarez, a juvenile whose age was not released, remained in "very critical" condition.

A police officer waiting at a traffic light at the intersection witnessed the shootings and stopped to help when the gunned-down car crashed, Dallas police Sgt. Gil Cerda said. Police policy prohibited the officer from pursuing the fleeing Jaguar because he already had a prisoner from an unrelated case in his back seat.

Turiace and others said Jack's Pub is normally a safe place that hosts festivals and volleyball matches and attracts a college crowd from Southern Methodist University (search) campus, near where the shooting occurred.

But the clientele shifts a bit on Monday nights, when the business is open to patrons 18 and older and advertises $2 drinks, $4 pitchers of beer, a packed dance floor thumping with two DJs and a time so good "You won't believe it's not Saturday," according to the pub's Web site.

In a statement, the owners of Jack's Pub said its security personnel tossed some patrons at about 12:30 a.m. and is checking "to determine if this behavior at Jack's Pub is linked to the tragedy."

University Park (search), a city of only 4.5 square miles, saw its last homicide in 2002, Brown said.

"I don't think it's going to be a hard case," Brown said. "Obviously, when you have people who are at a location such as a pub, hopefully, we can find witnesses who were at the location who can help us solve this crime."