Overstreet, a beloved regular patron at the Backstreet Café, died at the scene of the shooting. 22, 2000.Īccording to an account by an eyewitness to the incident who spoke last week with the Roanoke Times newspaper, after ordering a beer and standing next to the bar for a short time, Gay reached into the long trench coat he was wearing, pulled out a 9mm pistol, and fired a round “straight into the chest of 43-year-old Danny Overstreet, before opening fire on the rest of the bar.” Witnesses and law enforcement officials reported at the time of the shooting that a middle-aged man later identified as Gay arrived alone at Roanoke’s Backstreet Café, a popular gay bar, on the night of Sept.
15, according to the Virginia Department of Corrections.Ī spokesperson for the Department of Corrections told WSLS 10 TV News that Ronald Edward Gay died while being treated at a hospital near the Deerfield Correctional Center, a state prison where he had been living as an inmate. 29, 2000)Ī man sentenced to four consecutive life terms in prison for the September 2000 shooting at a gay bar in Roanoke, Virginia, in which one man lost his life and six others were wounded, died of natural causes on Jan. Ronald Edward Gay died while serving life sentences for attacking a Virginia gay bar.