Mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio

The shooter who killed nine people in Dayton was "a young white male," according to Senator Sherrod Brown.

Appearing on CNN's State of the Union, Brown said he spoke to Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley early on Sunday.

“The mayor said it was -- a young white male. I believe she may have said his age, I believe early 20s but I don't know for sure. He came not from the city of Dayton, he came from a town in Montgomery County nearby, that is the county Dayton is in and that is all that I know,” Brown said.

Authorities in Dayton have not given any information on the suspect.

Brown said he will travel to Dayton, OH later today. 

Two mass shootings within less than 13 hours of each other left 29 people dead and dozens more injured in Ohio and Texas.

In El Paso, 20 people were killed and 26 injured when a gunman, identified by three sources as Patrick Crusius, a 21-year-old white man from Allen, Texas, began shooting just after 10:30 a.m. on Saturday.

Nine people were killed and at least 26 injured Sunday in a shooting in a popular nightclub district of downtown Dayton, Ohio, police say.

See photos from the two cities here.

Graham Hunter, 24, of Dayton said he and four friends arrived just as the incident was over and immediately came upon the body of the shooter outside.

"Everyone was panicking and running around," Hunter said. "After the shooter was dead, everyone was just crying and stuff," and he saw "bodies all over the place."

A police officer told him and his friends to go into Ned Peppers.

He said he and his friends consider the area a safe, fun place to hang out on weekends, where many people walk around outdoors and meet on patios at restaurants and bars.

"It's a nice spot," he said. "It's where everyone goes to hang out."

Izack Johnson was in the Oregon District in downtown Dayton when the shooting started in the early hours of Sunday.

He recorded a video in which gunfire can be heard. It is unclear whether the audible shots were fired by police or the shooter.

President Donald Trump has been briefed on the shooting in Dayton, Ohio and is monitoring the situation, Deputy Press Secretary Steven Groves said.

In a series of tweets on Sunday morning, Trump said "information is rapidly being accumulated in Dayton."

"God bless the people of El Paso Texas. God bless the people of Dayton, Ohio," he said in another tweet.

The shooting happened outside the Ned Peppers bar in the Oregon District, a busy neighborhood full of bars and restaurants in the historical center of Dayton.

Police said that "thousands of people" would be in the area on a summer Saturday night.

Dayton mayor Nan Whaley suggested the death toll would have been much higher if the police weren't in the district at the time.

“The officers were there less than a minute from the beginning of the shooting. The shooter was able to kill nine people and injure 26 in less than a minute," mayor Nan Whaley said during a news conference.

"If we did not have police in the Oregon District ... what we could have had in this city ...,” she added.

Nine people were killed and 26 injured after a shooter opened fire in a busy area in the Oregon District of Dayton, Ohio.

Here is what we know:

Dayton mayor Nan Whaley praised the city's first responders for reacting quickly as the shooting unfolded.

Whaley said thousands of people would have been in the area on a Saturday night in summer.

The shooter in Dayton was wearing body armor and used a “.223 high-capacity” gun and had additional magazines with him, Dayton mayor Nan Whaley said in a news conference.

“In less than one minute, Dayton first responders neutralized the shooter," Whaley said.

Lieutenant Colonel Matt Carper of the Dayton Police specified the shooter was killed in less than a minute after the shooting started. He said officers were very close when the shooter opened fire.

Speaking about a possible motive of the shooter, Whaley said: “We don’t know the thoughts of the shooter at this time.”

Carper said it appeared there was only one shooter.