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At least four people died and more than 20 – most of them teenagers – were injured in a shooting at a birthday party in a small town in the southern US state of Alabama, in yet another case of gun violence. of fire in the country.
The attack took place on Saturday night in Dadeville, a small town in Alabama, in a hall where a teenager was celebrating her “Sweet 16” – a party similar to the celebration of 15 years in Latin American countries.
A bullet hole was still visible, this Sunday (16), in the glass door of the building, surrounded with the yellow plastic tape used by the police to isolate crime scenes.
“This act tragically claimed the lives of four people and left many injured,” Sgt. Jeremy Burkett, spokesman for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA), told reporters.
Burkett later reported that 28 people were injured, some seriously, and urged residents to come forward with any information that may be related to the attack. But he did not elaborate on how the shooting took place or why, or whether any suspects had been apprehended.
Phill Dowdell, the birthday teen’s brother, was among the dead, his grandmother, Annette Allen, told the local newspaper the Montgomery Advertiser. The young man was in his last year of high school and would graduate in a few weeks.
“He was a very, very quiet guy. He never messed with anyone. He always had a smile on his face,” said Allen, referring to his grandson, who also played football.
Nearby Lake Martin Community Hospital received 15 patients with gunshot wounds, most of them teenagers, Heidi Smith, director of marketing for rural health center operator IvyCreek Healthcare, told AFP.
Six of the patients were discharged and nine were transferred to specialized care facilities. Of those, five were in critical condition, Smith said. “It was terrible,” she declared.
ALEA reported that a joint investigation has been opened with Dadeville Police and federal agencies, including the FBI.
– “Revolting and unacceptable” –
President Joe Biden said the country was again mourning young Americans murdered in gun violence.
“How far has our nation come when children can’t go to a birthday party without fear?” Biden said in a statement.
“Guns are the leading cause of death for children in the United States, and the numbers are rising, not falling,” added the Democratic president. “This is outrageous and unacceptable,” he said.
Efforts to tighten gun controls have faced opposition for years from Republicans, staunch supporters of the constitutional right to bear arms. Political paralysis lingers, despite the widespread outrage sparked by recent shootings.
The United States, a country of 330 million people, has an estimated 400 million guns in circulation, and lethal mass shootings are frequent.
The deaths at Saturday’s birthday party came on the 16th anniversary of the deadliest school shooting on record in the United States: it was in 2007, when 32 people were killed by an unhinged student at Virginia Tech, an institution of higher learning.
In a separate case, police confirmed that two people were killed and four others were wounded in a shooting, also on Saturday night, in a crowded park in Louisville, Kentucky. In this same city, a bank employee killed five people in the institution where he worked on Monday.
Since the beginning of the year, there have been 163 mass shootings in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive organization. This group defines a mass shooting attack when there is a minimum of four killed or wounded, not counting the shooter.
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© Agence France-Presse
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