The Columbus Dispatch reports that the Alrosa Villa nightclub in Columbus, Ohio, where PANTERA and DAMAGEPLAN guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott was shot and murdered more than 16 years ago, will be turned into an apartment complex.
It seems that plans are already underway to construct three four-story buildings which would provide apartment units directly on the site where Dimebag and three other people were killed by 25-year-old ex-Marine, Nathan Gale.
On the night of December 8, 2004, Nathan Gale charged onstage at the packed nightclub and opened fire on DAMAGEPLAN, seeming specifically to target Dimebag, and crowd, before being killed himself by police officer James D. Niggemeyer, who arrived on the scene just minutes after the first shots were fired.
Vinnie Paul sued Alrosa Villa over his brother’s death. The lawsuit was settled out of court in 2007 for what was described at the time as a nominal amount.
“What happened here on Dec. 8, 2004, was a tragedy for everyone and our hearts go out to the victims and their families,” Alrosa Villa’s then-manager Rick Cautela said in a statement issued after Vinnie Paul’s lawsuit was dismissed. “There is nothing we could have done to stop it.”