A massive manhunt is underway in Birmingham, Alabama, after a shooting at a nightclub late Saturday night left four people dead and 17 injured.
The violence is just the latest shocking incident highlighting the epidemic of gun violence and murder that continues to plague the United States, yet has resulted in little to no political action.
Police and media reports said the incident occurred in Birmingham’s entertainment district, and that at least four of the injured suffered serious, life-threatening injuries.
Police said several victims of the massacre were caught in the crossfire and are offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of those involved.
The shooting happened just after 11pm on Saturday in the city’s Five Points South entertainment district.
When officers arrived on the scene, they found two men and one woman on the sidewalk with gunshot wounds and were pronounced dead at the scene. The other man was pronounced dead at a hospital. Including the two fatalities, a total of 21 people were shot. Police said they found more than 100 shell casings at the scene.
Police said the shooting was not random and is believed to be an isolated incident.
Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond said at a press conference early Sunday morning that multiple people arrived at the nightclub in a vehicle, opened fire, then fled the scene. A preliminary investigation indicates police believe the gunmen targeted one of the deceased victims, and that the other victim was caught in the crossfire.
“We believe there was an attack on that particular individual in that there was someone willing to pay money to kill that person,” Mr Thurmond said.
Mr Salmond offered his condolences to the victims and their families: “Twenty-one people’s lives have been changed forever. Twenty-one families have been destroyed or simply altered. Our hearts are with them at this situation.”
The Five Points South area of Birmingham has plenty of entertainment options, restaurants and bars and tends to get busy on Saturday nights.
Police said no arrests were immediately made.
“We’re going to do everything we can to locate, identify and hunt down the person or persons who attacked our citizens this morning,” Fitzgerald told WBMA.
This is the second mass shooting at a local Birmingham nightclub since the start of the summer. In July, a mass shooting outside a nightclub and residence left nine people dead, including a child, and nine others injured.
Randall Woodfin on Sunday urged elected officials to pass gun safety regulations after a summer of violence in the city. Woodfin noted that the city once had a ban on assault weapons, but it expired in 2004. While the ban was in place, gun violence in Birmingham decreased. But since it expired, shootings in the city have become more deadly due to the use of assault weapons.
“Don’t tell me this is unsolvable. At the same time, don’t tell me this is something that only police should solve,” Woodfin said at a news conference. “Local, state and national elected officials have a duty to solve this American crisis, this epidemic of gun violence.”
“They have to give us the tools to solve these problems.”
The United States has a high rate of mass shootings and frequent public calls for stricter gun control, but the federal government has generally been unwilling or unable to listen.
In the United States, the lobby for gun control remains strong and has enormous influence over politicians who seek to strengthen gun control.
In June, the conservative-majority Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on bump stocks, accessories that allow semi-automatic rifles to fire at machine gun speeds. Following the 6-3 decision, Joe Biden denounced the ruling, saying it would “strike back at important gun safety regulations.”
The Associated Press contributed reporting
