They gathered in a sophisticated downtown restaurant for a festive prelude to a wedding party.

A Texas couple who tied the knot a year earlier returned to Buffalo to share their milestone with friends and relatives. They traded happy memories and talked in eager anticipation about a reception that was to be held Saturday night and the christening planned for their 6-month-old daughter today.

But at around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, there was commotion inside City Grill at 268 Main St. A dee jay stopped the music, flipped the lights and ordered everyone to leave.

That's when the joyous occasion took a tragic turn. As patrons streamed out of the restaurant onto Main Street, a barrage of gunfire came from a parking lot across the street.

Blood was everywhere. So were bodies. Including the 30-year-old husband.

When the gunfire ended, four people were fatally shot. Four others were wounded in one of the most deadly crimes Buffalo has witnessed in decades.

In addition to the proud husband, Danyell Mackin, the dead include two cousins -- both women who planned to be in another relative's wedding this coming week.

One of the survivors was in a coma late Saturday night. The other three wounded victims are expected to survive, including one already released from the hospital.

Mackin's wife, Tanisha, was not injured.

"She's not doing too good right now," said Tanisha Mackin's father, Dale Stephens, speaking at the family's University District home. "She's grieving. The family is praying, and that's about all we can do right now."

Keith D. Johnson, 25, of Minnesota Avenue, who knew some of the victims, was charged with four counts of murder. However, police later in the evening said they no longer believe Johnson is the shooter, and the charges against him are expected to be dropped in court this morning.

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UPDATE: Charges against suspect dismissed this morning

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City Grill, with its high ceilings and large windows overlooking Main Street, is popular for business lunches among the downtown crowd. It also attracts hockey and baseball fans and others who want to stop for dinner before a special event at HSBC Arena, Coca-Cola Field and Shea's Performing Arts Center.

Saturday morning there were numerous parties there -- a birthday celebration as well as the wedding festivities -- and the normal bar crowd.

There were as many 200 people in the establishment, according to some sources' estimates. There was some type of incident inside the restaurant, Chief of Detectives Dennis J. Richards told reporters.

"There's reports of perhaps at least one person that was escorted out of the restaurant just shortly prior to [the shootings]," Richards said. "Apparently, there were some verbal things going on that management apparently chose to close down and had everybody leave the restaurant."

Roshelle Burgin, who turns 31 on Monday, celebrated with friends on City Grill's outside patio. She left just minutes before the shooting.

"It seemed like something was brewing, so I left," she said. "It seemed like a commotion, hearing people arguing. That's basically what told me to leave, before trouble started."

As she and her friends headed to her car in the restaurant's parking lot, she heard the shots. She ran in heels to her car. "I was scared," she said.

"A couple of my friends fell and scraped up their legs and arms while running through the parking lot," she said.

She didn't see the gunfire but heard it. "It sounded like fireworks," she said. "Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop."

She heard screaming and saw others running. She pulled out onto Pearl Street, the backside of the restaurant, so she didn't see the carnage.

Six hours after the shootings, passers-by gawked at trails of blood that led from the sidewalk into two nearby parking lots. Two vehicles were splattered with in blood.

A young woman who attended the party inside City Grill returned to the scene Saturday to retrieve her vehicle -- an SUV splattered with blood. The woman's mother stood by the vehicle, shaking her head in disbelief.

"It's just shocking," said the woman, who declined to give her identity.

Her daughter, she said, was inside when the shooting occurred.

"Everyone just heard shots coming from the outside, and they started running," she said.

Some friends and relatives of the victims also returned to the blood-splattered scene later Saturday morning. Tiffany Wilhite's father, Raymond Wilhite, stood only several feet from where his daughter and her cousin, Shawn-Tia McNeil, were gunned down.

"It's just a senseless killing," he said. "A senseless, random killing. And this kind of thing just has to stop."

Tiffany Wilhite, 32, was a home care aide. She was single, the father said.

By late Saturday morning, the focus of the investigation shifted seven miles from the shooting scene when a SWAT team converged on a home in the 100-block of Minnesota Avenue in the University District. Police led Johnson out of a home in handcuffs. Neighbors said Johnson had recently moved into his mother's home after serving time in prison.

Later in the day, Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda joined Mayor Byron W. Brown near the shooting scene when officials briefed reporters. Brown talked about the sad irony.

"Unfortunately, an occasion that should have been a happy one turned into tragedy," Brown said.

He made a commitment to families of the victims.

"The police department has been working tirelessly, and they will be given every tool and every resource that they need to bring those responsible to justice," the mayor said.

Watching Johnson's apprehension late Saturday morning from the sidewalk behind some police tape was Ruby Martin, the mother of shooting victim Shawn-Tia McNeil. She described her daughter as an "innocent bystander" who was at the party because she was friends of the couple celebrating their earlier marriage.

"There's no words to explain how I feel," Martin said. "But I do feel better if this is the one that did the killing, that they got him."

Martin learned about the shooting when a niece called her moments after the crime. "Devastating," was how Martin described the call.

"They need to catch more of these killers. Because that's what they are -- killers," Martin said.

Later Saturday, at the Pratt Willert Community Center, a sign on the front door said "Mackin party canceled. There's been a death in the family."

A friend of the family, a woman dressed in a beautiful gown, was there to intercept guests who had not heard about the tragedy.

Some ended up at the Comstock Avenue home, where Tanisha Mackin's parents live. Dozens were there, offering prayers, support and love. They were on the front steps. Standing in the street, and across the street. They reminisced about what a wonderful couple Danyell and Tanisha were, and talked about the couple's 6-year-old son, and their 6-month-old daughter, who was to be christened today.

A few blocks away on Berkshire, a similar tragic gathering repeated itself for Shawn-Tia McNeil's family. There were photographs of "Tia." There were tears. And their memories filled with love.

At one point, Mayor Brown showed up at the McNeil's to offer his condolences.

The City Grill had been owned for years by Steven Calvaneso, a former mayoral candidate and local restaurateur. He sold the business last year to Scott and Virginia Rossi of East Amherst. The Grill is located next to the Merchant's Mutual Building, about a block from the HSBC Center tower. The restaurant has a good reputation, with no reported problems since it opened.

The restaurant management issued a statement to the media and posted it on its window. It read: "We at City Grill are deeply saddened by the tragic events that occurred on August 14th. We are cooperating fully with the authorities and the ongoing investigation. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families."

The business is located directly across from the Seneca Metro Rail station, and Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority Police on Saturday removed video cameras from the station in hopes that the crimes may have been captured on surveillance tape. Metro Rail officials would not discuss the ongoing investigation, except to say that they are "fully cooperating" with city homicide investigators.

Throughout much of the day, people who heard media reports about the shootings came to the crime scene. Curtis Jeffries, who supports a number of grass-roots anti-violence efforts, heard about initial reports of the shootings on a police scanner and from relatives. An elder at True Bethel Baptist Church, Jeffries held a brief prayer vigil on the corner of Main and Swan streets.

"We have so much despair going on right now in our region and our community," he said. "It's painful to see things going on like this, so I really came out to spend a moment in prayer for the family members, for our community and our city. We see so much death right now."

The acting commissioner of the state Division of Criminal Justice Services reacted to the mass shooting, an incident that made national headlines.

"We're extremely upset by this terrible tragedy," Sean Byrne told The Buffalo News on Saturday. "We have to do everything we can to help the community deal with this, and to help the families of the victims."

News staff reporters Maki Becker and Stephen T. Watson contributed to this report.