Two Alabama teenagers have been taken into custody and charged with murder over a shooting at a sixteenth birthday party that left four dead and 32 wounded.
Key points:
- Prosecutors said the accused murderers would be charged as adults and they would ask the court to hold them without bail
- Of the 32 people injured in the shooting, four remain in critical condition
- Prosecutors expect to lay further charges and the accused are due to front a hearing again by Friday (local time)
The accused— Ty Reik McCullough, 17, and Travis McCullough, 16, both of Tuskegee — have been charged with four counts of reckless murder, Sergeant Jeremy Burkett of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said during a news conference.
“Make no mistake. This is Alabama and when you pull out a gun and you start shooting people, we’re going to put you in jail,” Sergeant Burkett said.
“We’re tired of going to mothers and having to tell them these kids aren’t coming home.”
The shooting on Saturday (local time) took place at the Mahogany Masterpiece Dance Studio in Dadeville, a community of 3,200 people about 54 kilometres north of Tuskegee.
District Attorney Mike Segrest said prosecutors would ask a judge to hold them without bail, and that the pair would be would be tried as adults.
That is automatically required in Alabama for anyone 16 or older charged with murder.
Police said at this stage they were not at liberty to discuss motive.
A bond hearing must be held by Friday (local time) under Alabama law.
In addition to the four young people who were killed, another 32 were wounded, some critically.
Mr Segrest said four people remain in hospital in critical conditions, and more charges would be laid.
“We’re going to make sure all those victims have justice, not just the deceased,” Mr Segrest said.
Planning funerals instead of graduation parties
The gunfire broke out at a birthday party for Alexis Dowdell, which was being held just off the town’s courthouse square.
Witnesses have said multiple people began shooting some time after Ms Dowdell’s mother paused the celebration to ask people with guns to leave.
The birthday girl’s brother, Philstavious “Phil” Dowdell, died in his sister’s arms.
He and another victim were high school seniors, and families were left planning funerals instead of graduation celebrations.
Two other young men were also killed.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency had said only that shell casings from handguns had been found, noting that there was no evidence a rifle was used.
Investigators have repeatedly appealed for information from the public, including videos.
Besides Phil Dowdell, a star wide receiver with plans to play college football, those killed were fellow Dadeville High senior Shaunkivia Nicole “KeKe” Smith, 17, an athlete-turned-team manager; 2022 Opelika High School graduate Marsiah Emmanuel “Siah” Collins, 19, an aspiring singer who planned to start college this fall; and 2018 Dadeville High graduate Corbin Dahmontrey Holston, 23, another former athlete at the school.
Mr Holston had gone to the party to check on a younger family member who feared trouble, Mr Holston’s mother Janett Heard said, according to local media.
Relatives told local news the shooting began shortly after Mr Holston arrived, and that he pulled his younger relative to safety.
In 2020, Alabama had the fifth highest rate of gun deaths in the country, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Texas cheerleaders shot after entering wrong car
A man shot and wounded two cheerleaders in a Texas supermarket parking lot after one of them said she mistakenly got into his car thinking it was her own.
The shooting in Elgin, east of Austin, happened early on Tuesday (local time) in a parking lot that serves as a carpool pick-up spot for members of the Woodlands Elite Cheer Company, team owner Lynne Shearer said.
Heather Roth, one of four team members transferring rides in the car park after practice, said she got out of her friend’s car and into a car she thought was hers, but there was a stranger in the passenger seat, local media reported.
She said she panicked and got back into her friend’s car, but the man got out of his vehicle and approached.
She said she tried to apologise through her friend’s car window, but the man threw up his hands, pulled out a gun and opened fire.
Ms Roth was grazed by a bullet and was treated at the scene, police said.
Her friend Payton Washington, 18, was shot in the leg and back.
“Payton opens the door, and she starts throwing up blood,” Ms Roth said.
Ms Washington was flown to a hospital in critical condition.
Doctors had to remove part of ms Washington’s spleen, local media reported.
A witness said the shooter fled the scene after the attack.
They later charged 25-year-old Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr with engaging in deadly conduct, a third-degree felony.
The attack comes days after two other high-profile shootings that occurred after victims went to mistaken addresses.
In one case, a black teen was shot and wounded after going to the wrong Kansas City, Missouri, home to pick up his younger brothers.
In the other, a woman looking for a friend’s house in upstate New York was shot and killed after the car she was riding in mistakenly went to the wrong address.
Wires/ABC