4 Killed, 28 Injured At Birthday Party In Dadeville

Topline

Four people were killed and 28 were injured in a mass shooting at a birthday party in Alabama on Saturday, state officials said at a press conference Sunday, in the latest deadly event involving guns.

Chief of Police Johnathan Floyd speaks at a press conference following a shooting on Saturday in … [+] Dadeville, Alabama.

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Key Facts

The incident took place in Dadeville—a small town of about 3,000 in eastern Alabama—at around 10:34 p.m. on Saturday, Sgt. Jeremy Burkett from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said at a press conference.

The shooting occurred during a birthday party at a dance studio at which many teenagers were in attendance, according to local news outlets WRBL and the Montgomery Advisor.

Burkett confirmed the shooting “was tied to a birthday celebration” but offered few other details, and didn’t specify whether a suspect is in custody or if police have identified a suspected shooter.

Authorities have not identified any of the victims, but CNN reported one of the four who was killed was 18-year-old Philstavious Dowdell, a high school senior known in the community as a star football player, and the New York Times reported 18-year-old high school volleyball player and track team manager KeKe Nicole Smith was killed.

Burkett said some of the injured are in critical condition, adding there are a “wide variety” of injuries.

Big Number

163. That’s how many mass shootings with four or more injuries or deaths have occurred in 2023, including the Dadeville shooting, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Sunday is the 106th day of the year.

Key Background

The shooting in Dadeville comes on the heels of several other high-profile mass shootings, including a deadly incident at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky, that left four people dead and eight injured, and a shooting at a school in Nashville where six people were killed. In 2022, 647 people in the U.S. were killed in mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive. This year, that number has already surpassed 200.

Tangent

Between 2010 and 2016, 50% of adults in Alabama lived in a household containing a firearm, according to the RAND Corporation. In 2020, the firearm deaths rate in the state was 69% higher than the national average.

Surprising Fact

In a separate mass shooting Saturday night, two people were killed and four were hospitalized when a shooter fired into a public park in Louisville, Kentucky, local police said. The shooting came less than a week after five people were killed at a bank in downtown Louisville.