Alabama authorities ask for community’s help after mass shooting kills 4

Alabama authorities are asking for the community’s help as they search for answers surrounding a mass shooting that killed four people and injured more than two dozen others at a birthday party in the city of Dadeville.  

“We’ve got to have information from the community,” Sgt. Jeremy Burkett of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said at a news conference on Sunday. Though authorities held two such briefings with the media, Burkett did not take questions, and much is still unknown about the deadly incident late Saturday. 

“If you are at home right now, or you know somebody that has any information about what occurred last night — I cannot stress this enough, ever how minor you think it is — we absolutely need you to share it,” Burkett added. 

Police have not released information about a suspect or about the victims in the shooting, which occurred at a dance studio during a 16-year-old’s birthday party. 

One of the dead is reportedly the teenager’s brother, Philstavious “Phil” Dowdell, a high school senior who, according to The Associated Press, had been set to play college football at Jacksonville State University.

Among the 28 people wounded are some with critical injuries, Burkett said. 

“What has our nation come to when children cannot attend a birthday party without fear? When parents have to worry every time their kids walk out the door to school, to the movie theater, or to the park?” President Biden asked in a statement over the weekend. 

The Dadeville shooting comes on the heels of two deadly shootings in Louisville, Ky., one at a bank and another at a park.