At least four people were killed, including a high school football player, in a shooting that erupted during a birthday party held inside a dance studio in the small town of Dadeville, Alabama, state police and local news media said.
More than 28 people were injured, some critically, during the shooting about 100km northeast of the state capital of Montgomery, authorities said. The shooting started shortly after 10:30pm on Saturday.
Law enforcement officers did not immediately say if a suspect was in custody or if investigators knew about any motivation. The police called for people to come forward with information.
Photo: Reuters
“We’re going to continue to work in a very methodical way to go through this scene, to look at the facts, and ensure that justice is brought to bear for the families,” Jeremy Burkett, a sergeant with the Alabama law enforcement agency, told a news conference on Sunday.
“We’ve got to have information from the community,” Burkett said during a Sunday evening news conference.
US President Joe Biden said in a statement on Sunday: “What has our nation come to when children cannot attend a birthday party without fear?”
Biden called the rising gun violence in the nation “outrageous and unacceptable,” and urged congress to pass laws that would make firearms manufacturers more liable for gun violence, ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, and require safe storage of firearms and background checks for gun sales.
Philstavious “Phil” Dowdell, a Dadeville high school senior who had signed with Jacksonville State University, was celebrating at his sister Alexis’ party before he was fatally shot, his grandmother, Annette Allen, told the Montgomery Advertiser.
“He was a very, very humble child. Never messed with anybody. Always had a smile on his face,” Allen told the newspaper, calling it “a million-dollar smile”.
Dowdell’s mother was among those hurt in the shooting.
“Everybody’s grieving,” Allen said.
Investigators believed an altercation led to the shooting at the Mahogany Masterpiece studio, WRBL reported.
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