Five still critical after Alabama birthday party shooting

Hospital officials said five individuals were in serious condition Monday after a Saturday shooting at a rural Alabama adolescent birthday party that killed four.

Saturday’s shooting at Dadeville’s 3,200-person Mahogany Masterpiece Dance Studio injured 28 persons. Authorities reported a “Sweet 16” celebration shooting.

Four high school seniors died. At a Monday news conference, Lake Martin Community Hospital spokesperson Heidi Smith said five of the nine patients were in severe condition.

“Dadeville is relatively little. “Everybody knows everybody, and seeing people you know come through the emergency room was very difficult,” Smith said.

The Montgomery Advertiser said that a high school football player attending his sister’s “Sweet 16” birthday celebration was one of the four killed.

Phil Dowdell, the victim’s grandmother told the newspaper, was expected to graduate in a few weeks and attend Jacksonville State University on a football scholarship.

The shooting suspects’ fates are unknown. They have also not revealed what caused the tragedy.

Local politicians called for more gun regulation after tragic shootings in Tennessee and Kentucky.

The Gun Violence Archive reports more than 163 mass shootings in 2023, the highest since 2016. Four or more persons, excluding the gunman, are injured or killed in a mass shooting, according to the nonprofit.

Five persons were shot in Isle of Palms, South Carolina, two weeks before the Alabama shooting. Authorities reported a brawl broke out during a “senior skip day” in which high school seniors celebrate their imminent graduation by taking a day off.