OTTAWA — Police are searching for witnesses who could help them identify the man responsible for a fatal shooting early Thursday in a ByWard Market club.

Mohamed Jama Ali, 26, a Somalian refugee and gang member who was known to police and went by the nickname Casper, was shot in the stomach in Bar 56 after a fight broke out during the club’s weekly Wednesday hip-hop night. The fight began with a thrown beer bottle and ended after someone pulled out a handgun and started firing.

Another bullet tore into the left arm of a 39-year-old man who suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Ali, whose family came to Canada to escape the violence and brutalities of the Somali civil war, stumbled up to the street and died later in hospital. Police were called to 56 ByWard Market Square, between George and York streets, at around 1:15 a.m. Thursday for reports of a shooting.

The address is home to The Collection and Bar 56, two martini lounges on split-levels, and the Mercury Lounge, a bar on the top floor of the three-storey red-brick building. The Collection and Bar 56 are closed indefinitely.

The street was closed into Thursday afternoon as police searched the area outside the club extensively, looking through trash piles, awnings and sewer drains for a gun and other evidence. Police would not say whether a weapon has been recovered.

As of Friday night, the shooter remained at large and few witnesses had identified themselves to police. Police are encouraging anyone who was in the bar Wednesday night to come forward and speak with them.

Thursday’s homicide was the third of the year, coming only days after 32-year-old Dominic Rock Doyon was found dead in a fifth-floor apartment at 380 Murray St., in the Lowertown area.

On the heels of that slaying, Ali’s death has renewed concerns about crime in the market area, but as the ByWard Market Business Improvement Area and experts are quick to point out, Thursday’s shooting was not a daily event.

The mood in the market after hearing of Thursday’s killing was one of sorrow and shock, said the ByWard Market BIA’s executive director.

“Sorrow at the loss of life and injury and shock in the sense that this is not by any means a regular occurrence in the ByWard Market,” Jasna Jennings said.

“This is an isolated incident. We don’t have murders every day in the ByWard Market.”

The bustling life of the market has continued as usual, Jennings said, noting that even on Thursday night, parking lots and restaurants were full, and that tourists and students on school trips continue to stream into the area off buses.

Irvin Waller, a criminology professor at the University of Ottawa and project director for the Institute for the Prevention of Crime, noted that Thursday’s killing was only the city’s third of the year, a low number for a city with an average homicide rate of 10 homicides a year — itself a low number compared to other Canadian cities.

Waller noted that the two recent homicides in the Market and Lowertown area seem to be based on circumstances independent of neighbourhood and doesn’t think that people should avoid the area because of it.

“Anybody wanting to go and shop in the market during the day or go to a restaurant at night should certainly continue to do so, and certainly I would continue to do that,” he said.

Anyone with information about Thursday’s early morning homicide, particularly people who were at the bar, is asked to contact the major crime section of the Ottawa Police at 613-236-1222 ext. 5493. Anonymous tips can be sent to Crime Stoppers at 613-233-TIPS (8477) or crimestoppers.ca.