FILE: Police confirmed late Saturday that two people were killed and four others were wounded in a shooting that occurred earlier in the day at a crowded park in Louisville, Kentucky. (Image: Reuters)
At least 20 people were shot at a Sweet 16 birthday party at a dance studio in Dadeville, a small town northeast of the state capital, Montgomery, local news reports said.
At least four people were killed and several wounded in a shooting Saturday night in the US state of Alabama, police said, with multiple reports saying the victims were a teenager celebrating a birthday party.
At least 20 people were shot at a Sweet 16 birthday party at a dance studio in Dadeville, a small town northeast of the state capital, Montgomery, local news reports said.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said in a statement on Sunday, “There are currently four confirmed deaths and multiple injuries.”
Local media and witnesses have said that several injured people, many of them teenagers, were taken to local hospitals for medical treatment.
Annette Allen said her grandson Phil Dowdell, a high school senior due to graduate within weeks, was among the dead. He was celebrating his sister Alexis’s 16th birthday when shots rang out at the party.
“He was a very polite kid. Never screwed over. He always had a smile on his face,” Allen told the Montgomery Advertiser, adding that Dowdell’s mother was also shot and wounded.
“Everyone is sad,” Allen said of the small community.
ALEA provided no further details on the incident, and said its State Bureau of Investigation has launched an investigation in conjunction with Dadeville police and federal agencies, including the FBI.
Television station WRBL in nearby Columbus, Georgia, reported heavy police activity overnight and crime scene tapes surrounding a building in Dadeville, where it said white sheets could be seen covering parts of the floor.
State leaders took to Twitter on Sunday to offer prayers and condemn the violence, but did not give details of what happened.
State Governor Kay Ivey posted, “This morning, I join the people of Dadeville and my fellow Alabamians in mourning.”
U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama called the shooting “heartbreaking”.
The United States, a country of some 330 million people, is littered with some 400 million guns, and fatal mass shootings are a regular occurrence.
Efforts to tighten gun control have for years run up against opposition from Republicans, staunch defenders of the constitutional right to bear arms. Despite widespread outrage over the repeated shootings, political paralysis persists.
Police confirmed late Saturday that two people were killed and four others were injured in a shooting that happened the same day at a crowded park in Louisville, Kentucky, where a bank employee shot five people at his workplace last Monday. People were murdered.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)