Authorities were tipped off during the early hours of Sunday morning that a brawl had broken out and shots had been fired outside the Luanda disco in Alcântara.
An altercation involving the 25-year-old fatal victim identified by newspaper Correio da Manhã (CM) as Aylton Tavares, who leaves a one-year-old daughter, may have started inside the venue and spilled out later onto the streets at around 6.30am.
Footage from a mobile phone broadcast by channel SIC shows scenes of an altercation inside the club.
Tavares was shot twice in the back and died later in hospital on the operating table. Two other clubbers were also seriously injured in the incident on Teixeira Júnior Street, but reportedly took themselves to hospital by taxi.
Their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
By the time police arrived at the scene, the shooter had already disappeared.
The victims are all believed to be from the Quinta da Fonte council estate in Apelação, in the Loures area, and aged from 18 to their 20’s.
Newspaper Jornal de Notícias reported the shooting could have been a “score-settling” between rival groups.
That same morning Aylton Tavares’ 18-year-old friend and neighbour, José Borges, bled to death after being found on his doorstep with a slash wound to his arm. Reports suggest part of his arm had been hacked off.
Police are probing the incident to see if there is a connection between the two deaths.
Indications so far are that Borges had not been at the nightclub with his friend and the incident involving him was, according to CM, initially described as a “domestic accident.”
Tavares’ friends have taken to social media to vow revenge.
On Wednesday this week, PJ police issued a statement saying a 23-year-old man has been identified and detained on suspicion of two counts of murder, one of which was attempted.
“The events took place at dawn last Sunday in the vicinity of a nightclub, located in Alcântara, Lisbon, after an altercation in which the fatal victim and the detainee became involved”, PJ police said.
The statement clarified that four people were caught up in the shooting, “one of whom later died.”
“The PJ worked to identify and arrest the presumed assailant, who is strongly suspected of being responsible for firing the shots that killed one man and injured another.”
The investigation is ongoing to determine the circumstances leading up to the shooting, and if anyone else was involved.
It is not the first time the Luanda club has seen bloodshed; in April 2000 seven people died and 40 were injured after two pepper spray bombs were launched onto the dance floor.