At least four people have been killed and 18 injured in a shooting that took place late Saturday in the US city of Birmingham, in the southeastern state of Alabama, with the cause of the incident unclear. According to preliminary investigations, “several suspects fired at a large group of people who were outside in a public area,” Truman Fitzgerald, a spokesman for the local police, explained in an email sent to the Associated Press.
“Officers with the Birmingham Police Department are responding to a scene of multiple gunshot wounds with possible multiple casualties,” the agency posted on its social media account, noting that the incident occurred in the Five Points area, an area that is home to entertainment venues, restaurants and bars and is often crowded on Saturday nights.
Police spokesman Truman Fitzgerald later said that “several shooters” opened fire on a group of people at around 11 p.m. (local time) and confirmed that there were at least four dead. “There are dozens of gunshot wounds in the area,” he said, according to the American television channel CNN. The Associated Press put the number of wounded at 18, citing the same spokesman.
“Detectives believe the shooting was not random and stemmed from an isolated incident in which multiple victims were caught in the crossfire,” Fitzgerald told the news agency. No suspects were in custody as of early Sunday.
The University of Alabama Hospital in Birmingham has received 11 people who were shot in the past few hours, including one of the people who died, hospital spokeswoman Hannah Echols told CNN. The condition of the wounded and the severity of their injuries have not been made public.
Fitzgerald stressed that authorities have opened an investigation. “We will do everything possible to clarify, identify and arrest those responsible for attacking our people,” he told CNN. He also explained that the victims were on the sidewalk or in the street and, therefore, it remains to be determined whether the shooters approached them on foot or drove by in a vehicle.
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The incident brings to 403 the number of mass shootings recorded so far this year in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as one in which there are at least four victims in a shooting, not including the shooter.
