Birthday party target of another mindless slaying; four dead, 28 wounded
At least four people have been killed, including a high school football player, in a shooting that erupted during a birthday party in an Alabama town.
An Alabama state trooper checks his phone as investigators work at the site of a fatal shooting in downtown Dadeville, Ala., on Sunday, April 16, 2023. Several were killed during a shooting at a birthday party Saturday night, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)
More than 28 people were injured, some critically, during the shooting inside a dance studio in Dadeville, northeast of the state capital of Montgomery, police say.
Authorities said the shooting started shortly after 10.30pm local time on Saturday but declined to provide further details during a Sunday news conference.
“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,” said Jeremy Burkett, a sergeant with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.
The Montgomery Advertiser newspaper reported that one of the four people slain during the violence was a high school football player who was among those attending his sister’s “Sweet 16” birthday celebration when a gunman opened fire.
Reuters could not independently confirm the information or learn the identities of the other three victims.
Officials provided no information about what led to the shooting or whether any suspect had been killed or arrested, but Burkett said there was no longer any threat to the community.
US President Joe Biden called the rising gun violence in the US “outrageous and unacceptable”.
“What has our nation come to when children cannot attend a birthday party without fear?” he said in a statement on Sunday.
Biden 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.
Tallapoosa County Schools Superintendent Raymond Porter said counselling would be provided at area schools on Monday, and asked local clergy to help families through the situation.
The shooting occurred within weeks of two high-profile deadly mass shootings in the nearby states of Tennessee and Kentucky, which prompted local leaders to call for tighter gun control measures.
A bank employee last week shot dead five colleagues and wounded nine other people at his workplace in Louisville, Kentucky.
On March 27, three nine-year-olds and three staff members were killed at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, by a former student.
Mass shootings have become commonplace in the US, with more than 163 so far in 2023, the most at this point in the year since at least 2016, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
