US shooting: Four dead at Alabama 16th birthday party
Four people were killed and 28 injured in a mass shooting at a 16th birthday party in the US state of Alabama.
Shots were fired at the Mahogany Masterpiece Dance Studio in the city of Dadeville on Saturday, leaving many critically injured. One of the victims named by local media is high school senior Phil Dowdell, a star athlete.
The incident marks the 160th mass shooting in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. President Joe Biden has renewed his calls for tougher gun laws, asking, “What has our nation come to when children cannot attend a birthday party without fear?”
Despite the scale of the shooting, little is known about the perpetrator. Sgt Jeremy Burkett of the state’s law enforcement agency said the investigation would be a “long, complicated process”, and that the injuries ranged from “extremely critical” to minor.
Most of the victims are thought to have been teenagers, and some parents were still searching for information about their children 12 hours after the shooting. The incident follows a shooting on the same day at a park in Louisville, Kentucky, which killed two people and injured four others.
