Four People Killed and 28 Injured as a result of Shooting at a Birthday Party

JAKARTA - At least four people have died, including a high school soccer player, in a shooting that occurred during a birthday party being held inside a dance studio in the small town of Dadeville, Alabama, state police and local media said Sunday.

More than 28 people were injured, some critically, during the shelling about 60 miles (100 km) northeast of the state capital Montgomery, authorities said.

Authorities said the shooting started shortly after 22:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, but declined to answer questions or provide further details during Sunday's press conference.

"We're going to continue to work in a very methodical way to move past this scene, to look at the facts, and make sure that justice is served to the family," said Jeremy Burkett, a sergeant at the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

The Montgomery Advertiser newspaper reported that one of the four people who died as a result of the violence was a high school football player who was among those attending his sister's 16th birthday celebration, when a gunman opened fire.

The party was held inside the Mahogany Masterpiece Dance Studio, converted from an old bank building located about half a block from the town hall in Dadeville, a town of about 3,000 people.

Meanwhile, officials have not provided any information about what led to the shootings or whether any suspects were killed or arrested. However, Burkett said there was no longer a threat to society.

"What will become of our nation when children cannot attend birthday parties without fear?" President Joe Biden said in a statement on Sunday.

President Biden called the rise in gun violence in the US "outrageous and unacceptable" and urged Congress to pass laws that would make firearms manufacturers more accountable for gun violence, ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines of ammunition, and make gun storage mandatory. safe fire and background checks, as well as buyer background checks for gun sales.

Separately, Tallapoosa County School Superintendent Raymond Porter told a news conference counseling would be provided at area schools on Monday, and asked the local chaplain to help families through the situation.

"We will make every effort to comfort the children and not lose sight of the fact that they are the most affected by this situation," Porter said.

The FBI, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and investigators from the local attorney's office are also responding to the incident, according to a release from the state law enforcement agency.

The shootings come within weeks of two deadly mass shootings in the nearby states of Tennessee and Kentucky, prompting local leaders to call for stricter gun control measures.

A bank employee last week shot dead five colleagues and injured nine others at his workplace in Louisville, Kentucky. On March 27, three 9-year-old children and three staff members were murdered at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, by a former student.

Mass shootings have become commonplace in the US, with more than 163 so far in 2023, the most at this time of year since at least 2016, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

The non-profit group defines a mass shooting as anywhere in which four or more people are injured or killed, not including the shooter.