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 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.