FREE CITY — What began as a celebration of freedom ended in bloodshed early Sunday morning, when masked gunmen stormed The Saintless, a notorious strip club in Free City’s Chapels district, leaving five dead, eight injured, and one man abducted in a brazen, military-style assault.

Shortly after midnight, chaos shattered the thumping bass of the club’s main floor. Witnesses say a matte-black, windowless bus screeched to a halt outside the venue before six armed men in tactical gear stormed inside with brutal efficiency. Their faces were covered. Their necks bore dark, intricate tattoos — symbols some sources believe are linked to a growing militant network operating in the city’s eastern quarters. "This wasn’t a robbery,” said one law enforcement official on condition of anonymity. “This was a coordinated extraction.”

The attackers moved straight to the VIP section. There, amid the smoke and strobe lights, they seized a man now identified by authorities as a key associate of several known criminal entities. He was dragged from a private booth before the gunmen opened fire, killing five and wounding eight others in the crossfire.

The abducted man has not been publicly named by officials, though multiple sources confirm he was a central figure in an ongoing federal investigation related to human trafficking and organized crime. His whereabouts remain unknown.

No group has claimed responsibility for the assault. Surveillance footage from The Saintless is reportedly “incomplete,” and staff have offered limited cooperation. Some believe the attack may have been a message — not just to the man taken, but to those celebrating his return. "This was surgical," said a former city investigator familiar with gang violence in Chapels. "Whoever did this had intel, backing, and a reason. And they sent it loud and clear."

The Saintless, already infamous for its connections to the underworld, is temporarily closed under police order. No arrests have been made as of yet.