By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

OVER-THE-RHINE - The shooting of a Main Street bar owner Sunday followed a fist fight with a neighborhood resident and was not a random attack, police said.

William Bramlage, 27, who helps run Moose on Main in the popular entertainment districtnear downtown, was shot in the face about 3:30 a.m. as he sat behind the wheel of his sport-utility vehicle at the intersection of Main and Liberty streets.

Bramlage left the bar a few minutes before after getting into a fight with two residents who walked in front of the bar, said Capt. James Whalen, district commander. An "unpleasant conversation" escalated into punching, Whalen said. He did not know how the fight escalated into gunfire and did not elaborate on the exact nature of the conversation.

Police were following leads to find the gunman, Whalen said. Bramlage's injuries were not life threatening, but he remained at University Hospital on Monday.

The message on his home phone in Covington said: "If you're calling about Will, he's going to be OK."

The shooting was the talk of Main Street. At some businesses, people were worried the violence was random. In others, people were more concerned about the shooting bringing bad publicity.

Whalen and Sgt. Maris Herold spent more than an hour visiting business owners to make sure their questions were answered.

Marge Hammelrath of the Over-the-Rhine Foundation called Moose on Main a place with "wonderful people and good food."

"The question is why so many people have guns," she said. "Somebody's got to figure out how to get guns off the streets."

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E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com