Four people were killed and 17 injured in a weekend shooting that police described as a targeted attack in which multiple gunmen opened fire outside a popular Alabama nightspot, but no arrests have been reported so far, authorities said.
A shooting occurred late Saturday night in Birmingham’s popular entertainment district of Five Points South, rocking an area packed with restaurants and bars that bustles on weekend nights. The shooting, one of several in major cities this year, has unsettled residents and prompted domestic and international officials to call for help in solving the incident and addressing the broader problem of gun violence.
“Our number one priority is finding the shooter and getting him out of our city,” Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said the day after the shooting.
The mayor scheduled a press conference for Monday morning to provide an update on the incident.
The shooting happened on the sidewalk and in the street outside the Hush lounge in the entertainment district, and bloodstains were still visible on the sidewalk outside the venue Sunday morning.
Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond said authorities believe the shooting was aimed at one of the people killed and appears to have been a homicide. A vehicle pulled up and multiple gunmen got out and opened fire, then fled the scene, he said.
“We believe there has been an ‘attack’ on that particular individual,” Mr Salmond said.
About 100 shell casings were recovered, police said. Thurmond said authorities were working to identify the weapons used but believe some of the shots were fully automatic. Investigators are also looking into whether anyone returned fire, sparking a shootout.
Police said in a statement late Sunday that the shooters are believed to have used a machine gun modification device that increases the rate of fire of semi-automatic rifles.
(Only the headline and photo of this report may have been modified by Business Standard staff. The rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First Published: 23 September 2024 | 12:54 PM IST