Fifth person charged over shooting that killed four at 16th birthday party in Alabama
A fifth person has been arrested and charged in connection with a shooting at a 16th birthday party that killed four young people.
It comes just hours after a fourth person was charged over the deaths in the small east Alabama city of Dadeville on 15 April.
The two men – Willie George Brown Jr, 19, of Auburn, and Johnny Letron Brown, 20, of Tuskegee – have both been charged with four counts of reckless murder.
Three others previously arrested – Tyreese “Ty Reik” McCullough, 17, of Tuskegee; Travis McCullough, 16, of Tuskegee and Wilson LaMar Hill Jr, 20, of Auburn – are also facing the same charges, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said.
The teenagers will be tried as adults, as required by Alabama law when anyone 16 or older is charged with murder.
Those killed ranged in age from 17 to 23, including the birthday girl’s brother Philstavious “Phil” Dowdell, 18, who died as his sister knelt beside him begging him to keep breathing.
Philstavious Dowdell, pictured with his sister Alexis Dowdell. Pic: Family of Phil Dowdell/AP
Shaunkivia Nicole “KeKe” Smith, who was killed in the shooting. Pic: Family of KeKe Smith/AP
Philstavious and fellow victim Shaunkivia Nicole “KeKe” Smith, 17, were high school seniors.
The other two killed were Marsiah Emmanuel “Siah” Collins, 19, and Corbin Dahmontrey Holston, 23.
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Another 32 people were injured – four of them critically.
The birthday shooting was the 16th mass killing in the US this year – a 17th happened in the state of Maine on Tuesday.
Some 88 people have died in mass shootings so far in 2023.
The figures are according to a database maintained by the Associated Press and USA Today with Northeastern University, which defines a mass killing as the deaths of four or more people aside from the perpetrator.
Elon Musk says he has created a new political party – the America Party –
after asking his followers if he should do so in an online poll.
It follows his public falling out with Republican President Donald Trump.
On Friday, the billionaire had asked his followers on X whether a new US political party should be created.
On Saturday evening he wrote on the same platform: “By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!
“When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy.
“Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”
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Trump threatens to ‘put DOGE’ on Musk
The world’s richest man made the announcement just one day after President Trump signed a tax-cut and spending bill into law on Friday, which Musk had fiercely opposed.
Musk had previously said we would form and fund a new political party to unseat lawmakers who supported the bill.
From bromance to bust-up
The Tesla boss backed Trump’s election campaign with more than a quarter of a billion dollars, later rewarded with a high profile role running the newly created department of government efficiency (DOGE).
But observers of the two men, both with huge wealth and reputations, wondered how long the bromance would last.
Donald Trump gave Musk a warm send-off in the Oval Office in May. Pic: Reuters
In May Musk left the role, still on good terms with Trump but criticising key parts of his legislative agenda.
After that, the attacks ramped up, with Musk slamming the sweeping tax and spending bill as a “disgusting abomination” and Trump hitting back in a barbed tit-for-tat.
Trump earlier this week threatened to cut off the billion-dollar federal subsidies that flow to Musk’s companies, and said he would even consider deporting him.
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