Post last updated at 7:13 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18:
The teen killed in a shooting at a Lawrence bar early Saturday was 18-year-old Aidan Knowles, according to police.
The shooting occurred close to 2 a.m. Saturday at the Hawk, 1340 Ohio St. Police said they quickly gathered witness statements, identified two suspects and took them into custody nearby without incident.
A 16-year-old was also injured and was still in critical condition as of the most recent update from police, which was Saturday afternoon.
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Lawrence police have not released much information about the circumstances of the shooting, but the department on Sunday afternoon shared a public Facebook post from Aidan Knowles’ father, Bobby Knowles.
“Our son, Aidan, was shot and killed outside a bar in Lawrence early yesterday morning. One of his close friends was also shot and, by the grace of God, survived against all odds,” the post stated. “We have learned that our son was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. We are completely devastated.”
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Laura McCabe, a spokesperson for the police department, did not confirm where Aidan had been living but said that “I reposted the information the family wanted to share.” After this article was published, she said his address was listed as Shawnee, Kansas.
Police said Saturday that the families of both teens had been notified but that they would wait “at least 24 hours” before releasing the name of the deceased teen.
How quickly police release the name of homicide victims varies. In recent memory, police publicly posted a 17-year-old homicide victim’s full name on Facebook within a few hours of his death; in another recent case, they did not release an adult homicide victim’s name until a few days later, after her family members had already spoken to reporters.
The suspects in Saturday’s shooting were both being held without bond at the Douglas County jail, and both cases were still pending review by prosecutors as of publication time, according to the jail’s booking log.
Caiden Clem, 18, of Atchison, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder and aggravated assault, according to the log. Daitron Daniels, 18, of Shawnee, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and aggravated assault.
“Our detectives continue to work tire tirelessly to investigate the circumstances of this case. That investigation is ongoing,” Lawrence police Major Hayden Fowler told reporters during a brief press conference Saturday. He did not take any questions.
Arrestees and defendants in criminal cases should be presumed not guilty unless they are convicted.
The Hawk, aka Jayhawk Cafe, is close by two other popular bars, and all three are just a couple of blocks from the KU Memorial Union.
Another family member of Knowles wrote on a GoFundMe page that he was “tragically shot and killed while just standing outside a Lawrence college hangout.”
“He was only 18 years old, and his family will need help with his funeral expenses,” the fundraiser states. “He was the light of our lives, and we will never ever recover from this senseless act.”
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