4 People Killed, 28 Others Injured During Birthday Party In Alabama

In a shooting that broke out during a birthday party held inside a dance studio in the small Alabama town of Dadeville, at least four people were slain, including a high school football player, state police and local media said on Sunday.

The shooting took place around 100 kilometers northeast of Montgomery, the state capital, and left four people dead as well as 28 injured, some gravely. The shooting began just after 10:30 p.m. CT on Saturday, according to the authorities, who declined to address queries or provide more information at two press briefings on Sunday.

The neighborhood was no longer in danger, but officials refused to clarify whether a suspect had been put to death or taken into custody.

According to Jeremy Burkett, a sergeant with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, “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.”

One of the four victims of the shooting, according to the Montgomery Advertiser newspaper, was a high school football player who was there at his sister’s Sweet 16 birthday party when the shooting started.

The deceased adolescent, identified as Phil Dowdell by the victim’s grandmother, who was quoted in the newspaper, was due to graduate in a few weeks and had plans to attend Jacksonville State University on a football scholarship.

Neither the information nor the identity of the other three victims could be independently verified yet.

In Dadeville, a community of roughly 3,000 people, the party was taking place inside the Mahogany Masterpiece Dance Studio, a former bank that was situated about a half-block from the city hall. On Sunday, yellow crime-scene tape was used to secure the area.

Hundreds of locals gathered early on Sunday evening for an outdoor prayer vigil in a parking area a few blocks from the shooting location.

“What has our nation come to when children cannot attend a birthday party without fear?” U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement on Sunday.

Biden referred to the rising gun violence in the United States as “outrageous and unacceptable,” and he urged Congress to enact legislation that would increase the liability of gun manufacturers for gun violence, outlaw assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, mandate safe storage of firearms, and establish background checks for gun sales.