UPDATED 5:36 P.M.
DADEVILLE, Alabama (Reuters) -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 on Sunday.
More than 28 people were injured, some critically, during the shooting about 60 miles (100 km) northeast of the state capital of Montgomery, authorities said.
Authorities said the shooting started shortly after 10:30 p.m. CT on Saturday but declined to answer questions or 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.
The party was being held inside the Mahogany Masterpiece Dance Studio, converted from an old bank building located about half a block from city hall in Dadeville, a town of about 3,000 residents.
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.
“What has our nation come to when children cannot attend a birthday party without fear?” President Joe Biden said in a statement on Sunday.
Biden called the rising gun violence in the U.S. “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.
Tallapoosa County Schools Superintendent Raymond Porter said at the news conference that counseling would be provided at area schools on Monday, and asked local clergy to help families through the situation.
“We will make every effort to comfort those children and don’t lose sight of the fact that those are the ones most impacted by this situation,” Porter said.
The FBI, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and investigators from the local prosecutor’s office also responded to the scene, according to a release from the state law enforcement agency.
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.
Meanwhile, Republicans vying for their party’s 2024 presidential nomination and other prominent party members sought to cast themselves as unwaveringly supportive of gun rights without restrictions in Indiana this weekend at the annual conference of the National Rifle Association (NRA), the country’s largest gun lobby.
A bank employee last week shot dead five colleagues and wounded nine other people at his workplace in Louisville, Kentucky. On March 27, three 9-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 U.S., 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. The nonprofit group defines a mass shooting as any in which four or more people are wounded or killed, not including the shooter.
(Reporting by Julia Harte and Hannah Lang; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Lisa Shumaker)
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(Reuters) -Four people were killed and multiple others injured in a shooting on Saturday night that was tied to a birthday party in the small town of Dadeville, Alabama, the state law enforcement agency said at a news conference on Sunday morning.
A local TV station reported on Sunday that more than 20 people had been injured in the shooting, citing investigators on the scene. The state agency declined to answer questions or provide further detail during the 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 shooting occurred around 10:34 p.m. on Saturday, according to the agency. Officials provided no information about what led to the shooting, and it was not known if any suspects had been taken into custody.
Tallapoosa County Schools Superintendent Raymond Porter said at the news conference that counseling would be provided at area schools tomorrow, and asked local clergy to help families through the situation.
“We will make every effort to comfort those children and don’t lose sight of the fact that those are the ones most impacted by this situation,” Porter said.
The FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Fifth Circuit District Attorney’s Office had also responded to the scene and were assisting with the investigation, according to a release from the state law enforcement agency.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said in a Twitter post on Sunday morning that she was staying “closely updated” by law enforcement as details emerged.
“This morning, I grieve with the people of Dadeville and my fellow Alabamians,” she wrote in the post. “Violent crime has NO place in our state.”
The shooting occurred within weeks of two high-profile mass shootings in the nearby states of Tennessee and Kentucky, which prompted local leaders to call for tighter gun control measures last week.
A bank employee shot dead five colleagues and wounded nine other people at his workplace in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday. On March 27, three 9-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 U.S. There have been more than 146 so far in 2023, the most at this point in the year since at least 2016, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The nonprofit group defines a mass shooting as four or more shot or killed, not including the shooter.
(Reporting by Julia Harte and Hannah Lang; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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(Reuters) – Four people were killed and at least 20 more were injured in a shooting on Saturday night in the small town of Dadeville, Alabama, a local TV station reported on Sunday, citing investigators on the scene and a release from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency did not immediately respond to a request for information from Reuters.
The shooting occurred around 10:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, according to the agency release cited in the report by TV station WRBL.
The FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Fifth Circuit District Attorney’s Office had also responded to the scene and were assisting with the investigation, the release said.
There was no confirmation about what led to the shooting, and it was not known if any suspects had been taken into custody.
Local reports indicated that the shooting occurred at a dance studio during what seemed to be a teenager’s birthday party. WRBL broadcast images of crime scene tape around the Mahogany Masterpiece Dance Studio and surrounding buildings.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said in a Twitter post on Sunday morning that she was staying “closely updated” by law enforcement as details emerged.
“This morning, I grieve with the people of Dadeville and my fellow Alabamians,” she wrote in the post. “Violent crime has NO place in our state.”
The shooting occurred within weeks of two high-profile mass shootings in the nearby states of Tennessee and Kentucky, which prompted local leaders to call for tighter gun control measures last week.
A bank employee shot dead five colleagues and wounded nine other people at his workplace in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday. On March 27, three 9-year-olds and three staff members were killed at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, by a former student.
(Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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DADEVILLE, Ala. – A teenager’s birthday party was the scene of a mass shooting Saturday night, which authorities say killed four people and injured more than 20 others.
FOX News reports the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s State Bureau of Investigations launched a death investigation.
It’s not immediately clear how many of the victims have survived, and the ages of the victims have not been released.
An eyewitness photo showed the bodies of at least six teenagers on the ground.
It’s also not clear if any arrests have been made.
“This morning, I grieve with the people of Dadeville and my fellow Alabamians. Violent crime has NO place in our state, and we are staying closely updated by law enforcement as details emerge,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey tweeted Sunday morning.
This story may be updated.
This morning, I grieve with the people of Dadeville and my fellow Alabamians. Violent crime has NO place in our state, and we are staying closely updated by law enforcement as details emerge.
— Governor Kay Ivey (@GovernorKayIvey) April 16, 2023
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