BOSTON, Aug. 8, 2012—A Jamaica Plain man opened fire in a downtown strip club early this morning, injuring two men and leaving one of them in critical condition, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.

Boston Police arrested STEVE GAYLE (D.O.B. 12/18/77) moments after the incident inside the Glass Slipper on La Grange Street, a remnant of Boston’s notorious Combat Zone. Gayle was arraigned early this afternoon in the Boston Municipal Court, where Judge Eleanor Coe Sinnott set bail at $125,000 on each of two dockets – one for each shooting victim – for a total of $250,000.

Gayle is charged with two counts each of armed assault with intent to murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and single counts of unlawful possession of a firearm and unlawful possession of ammunition. The victims, both adult males, remain hospitalized with one man in critical condition at Tufts Medical Center and a second man expected to survive at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Given the gravity of the primary victim’s injuries, Conley assigned Assistant District Attorney David Fredette of the DA’s Homicide Unit to the case. For the same reason, Boston Police homicide detectives are assigned to the investigation.

A Boston Police officer working a paid detail outside an adjoining club observed a commotion coming from the scene at about 2:15 this morning. Just after a man later identified as Gayle left the Glass Slipper, the doorman started pointing at him and telling the officer, “He has a gun.” The doorman was joined by patrons of the establishment who made the same statement.

Gayle turned right onto Washington Street, where the detail officer and another officer pursued him. Gayle appeared to be holding something in his right hand, and the officer instructed him to “Let me see your hands.” As Gayle reached the corner of Kneeland Street, an unmarked Boston Police cruiser with two additional officers also arrived on-scene.

The officers could now clearly see a firearm in Gayle’s hand and they instructed him to drop it. Gayle followed that command and placed the weapon – with its hammer still cocked and ready to fire – on the ground. The officers recovered that firearm as well as a plastic bag containing 16 rounds of ammunition from a backpack Gayle had been wearing.

As the officers took Gayle into custody, they heard over their radios of a shooting inside the Glass Slipper. Some of the officers returned to that scene and located the two victims, who were transported to separate hospitals.

Detectives interviewed multiple witnesses who had been inside the club, one of whom identified Gayle as having fired a handgun inside the premises. They also reviewed surveillance footage and obtained other evidence sufficient to charge Gayle as the assailant.

Gayle is represented by attorney Pamela Harris-Daly. He will return to court on Sept. 12.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.