Alabama: Four dead and 28 injured after mass shooting at birthday party
Four people, including an up-and-coming American football star, have been killed in a shooting in Alabama.
A further 28 people are injured – and officials say some of them are in a critical condition.
The incident took place at a teenager’s 16th birthday party late on Saturday evening in the city of Dadeville, in Tallapoosa County – about 60 miles (100km) northeast of Alabama’s state capital Montgomery.
The dance studio where the birthday party was taking place. Pic: AP
It was not immediately known if a suspect was in custody, but officials said the gunman was no longer a threat to the community.
“We’re going to continue to work in a very methodical way to go through this scene, to look at the facts, and ensure that justice is brought to bear for the families,” said Jeremy Burkett, a sergeant with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.
Among those killed was a football player who had just signed with Jacksonville State University.
Philstavious “Phil” Dowdell was celebrating at his sister Alexis’s party before he was shot to death, his grandmother Annette Allen told The Montgomery Advertiser.
“He was a very, very humble child. Never messed with anybody. Always had a smile on his face,” Ms Allen told the newspaper, calling it “a million-dollar smile”.
He had received offers from multiple universities but proudly declared his decision to attend Jacksonville on 1 February.
Head football coach Rich Rodriguez at Jax State University, where the high school senior had been signed to play, said it was “heartbroken” at the loss of the promising player.
Mr Dowdell’s mother was also hurt in the shooting.
Speaking at an earlier news briefing, Mr Burkett confirmed the shooting was “tied to a birthday party” – and urged members of the community with information to come forward.
“There were four lives, not fatalities, lives, lost in this incident,” he said, as well as a “multitude of injuries”.
“We’re going to continue to work through in a very methodical way to go through this scene, to look at the facts and ensure that justice is brought to bear for the families. We will do that,” he added.
Dadeville’s mayor, Frank Goodman, said the scene at a nearby hospital was “chaotic”.
“There were people running around. They were crying and screaming,” he said. “There were police cars everywhere, there were ambulances everywhere. People were trying to find out about their loved ones. That was a scene, where we never had anything like this happen in our city before.”
Read more:
The US gun problem is staggering – and getting worse
America’s problem with guns stands alone
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘We won’t let this tragedy define us’
Superintendent Raymond Porter added that counselling will be provided for students at school on Monday.
“We will make every effort to comfort those children and don’t lose sight of the fact that those are the ones most impacted by this situation,” he said.
In a statement, President Joe Biden asked: “What has our nation come to when children cannot attend a birthday party without fear?”
He added that gun violence in the US is “outrageous and unacceptable” – and urged politicians in Congress to pass laws that could shift liability to arms manufacturers, ban assault weapons, require safe storage of guns, and more background checks.
WRBL-TV reported that the attack took place at a dance studio, with the station showing images of crime scene tape around the venue and neighbouring buildings, as well as a heavy police presence.
Pic: AP
Pastor Ben Hayes, who serves as the chaplain for the Dadeville Police Department and for the local high school football team, said most of the victims are young because the shooting occurred at a teenager’s birthday party.
He said the shooting rocked the small town where serious crime is rare – and described one of the victims as a “great guy”.
“I knew many of these students,” he said. “Dadeville is a small town and this is going to affect everybody in this area.”
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said the shooting happened at about 10.30pm on Saturday and gave no information about a possible motive.
Authorities assisting with the investigation
The FBI, the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Fifth Circuit District Attorney’s Office had also responded to the scene and were assisting with the investigation.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said in a statement: “This morning, I grieve with the people of Dadeville and my fellow Alabamians.
“Violent crime has no place in our state, and we are staying closely updated by law enforcement as details emerge.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
December 2022: The true scale of America’s gun problem
Dadeville is a small city of about 3,000 people.
This is at least the second time in recent years that multiple people were shot in Dadeville. Five people were wounded in July 2016 during a shooting at an American Legion hall, and a man was later charged with five counts of attempted murder, news outlets reported.
There have been 162 mass shootings in the country so far this year, according to Gun Violence Archive.
The Dadeville shooting occurred within weeks of two high-profile mass shootings in the nearby states of Tennessee and Kentucky, which prompted local leaders to call for tighter gun control measures last week.
Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts
A bank employee shot dead five colleagues and wounded nine other people at his workplace in Louisville on Monday.
On 27 March, three nine-year-olds and three staff members were killed at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, by a former student.
The Syrian presidency has announced it’s assembling a special taskforce to try to stop nearly a week of sectarian clashes in the southern Druze city of Sweida.
The presidency called for restraint on all sides and said it is making strenuous efforts to “stop the fighting and curb the violations that threaten the security of the citizens and the safety of society”.
By early Saturday morning, a ceasefire had been confirmed by the US special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, who posted on X that Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to a ceasefire supported by US secretary of state Marco Rubio.
The post went on to state that this agreement had the support of “Turkey, Jordan and its neighbours” and called upon the Druze, Bedouins, and Sunni factions to put down their arms.
Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford reports from the road leading to Sweida, the city that has become the epicentre of Syria’s sectarian violence.
For the past 24 hours, we’ve watched as Syria‘s multiple Arab tribes began mobilising in the Sweida province to help defend their Bedouin brethren.
Thousands travelled from multiple different Syrian areas and had reached the edge of Sweida city by Friday nightfall after a day of almost non-stop violent clashes and killings.
“We have come to protect the [Arab] Bedouin women and children who are being terrorised by the Druze,” they told us.
Arab fighters said they had come to protect the Bedouin women and children
Fighters at a petrol station
Every shop and every home in the streets leading up to Sweida city has been burned or ransacked, the contents destroyed or looted.
We saw tribal fighters loading the back of pickup trucks and driving away from the city with vehicles packed with looted goods from Druze homes.
Shops and homes leading up to Sweida city have been burned or ransacked
Several videos posted online showed violence against the Druze, including one where tribal fighters force three men to throw themselves off a high-rise balcony and are seen being shot as they do so.
Doctors at the nearby community hospital in Buser al Harir said there had been a constant stream of casualties being brought in. As we watched, another dead fighter was carried out of an ambulance.
The medics estimated there had been more than 600 dead in their area alone. “The youngest child who was killed was a one-and-a-half-year-old baby,” one doctor told us.
Doctors said there had been a constant stream of casualties due to violence
The violence is the most dangerous outbreak of sectarian clashes since the fall of the Bashar al Assad regime last December – and the most serious challenge for the new leader to navigate.
The newly brokered deal is aimed at ending the sectarian killings and restoring some sort of stability in a country which is emerging from more than a decade of civil war.
Israel and Syria have agreed to a ceasefire, the US ambassador to Turkey has said.
Several hundred people have reportedly been killed this week in the south of Syria in violence involving local fighters, government authorities and Bedouin tribes.
As the violence escalated in the southern province of Sweida, Israel launched airstrikes, including attacks on Wednesday on the defence ministry in Damascus and a target near the presidential palace.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government said it aimed to protect Syrian Druze – part of a small but influential minority that also has followers in Lebanon and Israel.
In a post on X, the US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, said Israel and Syria had agreed to a ceasefire supported by Turkey, Jordan and others.
“We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity,” Mr Barrack said in a post on X.
The Israeli embassy in Washington and Syrian Consulate in Canada did not immediately comment or respond to requests for comment from the Reuters news agency.
The ceasefire announcement came after the US worked to put an end to the conflict, with secretary of state Marco Rubio saying on Wednesday that steps had been agreed to end a “troubling and horrifying situation”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Why is Israel bombing Syria?
After Israel warned it would destroy forces attacking Syrian Druze, Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa told the minority group in a televised statement on Thursday that “we reject any attempt to drag you into hands of an external party”.
He then claimed Israel has “consistently targeted our stability and created discord among us since the fall of the former regime”.
It comes after the United Nations’ migration agency said earlier on Friday that nearly 80,000 people had been displaced in the region since violence broke out on Sunday.
It also said that essential services, including water and electricity, had collapsed in Sweida, telecommunications systems were widely disrupted, and health facilities in Sweida and Daraa were under severe strain.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Please refresh the page for the latest version.
You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow us on WhatsApp and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.
At least three people have been killed after a “horrific incident” at a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department training facility, officials have said.
A spokesperson for the department said there was an explosion at the Biscailuz Center Academy Training in east LA.
The incident was reported at around 7.30am local time (3.30pm UK time).
Aerial footage from local channel KABC-TV suggests the blast happened in a parking lot filled with sheriff patrol cars and box trucks.
The training centre in east LA. Pic: NBC Los Angeles
Attorney general Pam Bondi wrote on X: “I just spoke to @USAttyEssayli about what appears to be a horrific incident that killed at least three at a law enforcement training facility in Los Angeles.
“Our federal agents are at the scene and we are working to learn more.”
California congressman Jimmy Sanchez said the explosion had “claimed the lives of at least three deputies”.
“My condolences to the families and everyone impacted by this loss,” he said.
Media and law enforcement officials near the explosion site. Pic: AP
The attorney general said in a follow-up post that agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are “on the ground to support”.
The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, said the LAPD bomb squad has also responded to the scene.
“The thoughts of all Angelenos are with all of those impacted by this blast,” she said.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the incident, his press office said in a post on X.
“The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services is in contact with the Sheriff’s Department and closely monitoring the situation, and has offered full state assistance,” it added.
The cause of the explosion is being investigated.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Please refresh the page for the latest version.
You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow us on WhatsApp and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike