Police continue to hunt a group of attackers after a fatal shooting in Birmingham, Alabama, with a $50,000 (£37,400) reward being offered for any information leading to an arrest.
Four people were killed and 17 injured in Saturday night’s shooting.
On Monday morning, officials said they were still searching for the suspect and scrutinizing the many tips they had received from the public.
Investigators described the attack as an “attack” involving multiple gunmen who appeared to be targeting specific individuals.
Here’s everything we know about the incident so far.
What happened?
Associated PressThe attack occurred just after 23:00 local time (05:00 BST) around Magnolia Avenue South in the Five Points South nightlife district. Local media said the incident occurred as customers queued to enter the shisha and cigar lounge.
Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond described the shooting as a “targeted” incident rather than a random incident.
Some of the assailants allegedly got out of their cars and opened fire on the crowd in a public area before fleeing the scene.
They allegedly used a “machine gun conversion device.” Investigators said they have collected about 100 shell casings and other evidence from the scene.
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin blamed it on “Glock switches” – devices that can be attached to handguns to make them fire automatically – and described it as the area’s “number one public safety issue”.
Hookah lounge Hush said it was “heartbreaking” for its customers to be involved in the incident, stressing it had nothing to do with the venue itself.
Who was killed and injured?
Birmingham police have released the names of a woman and three men who were killed, saying the victims were local to the area:
- Anitra Holloman, 21, Bessemer.
- Tahj Booker, 27, Birmingham
- Carlos McCain, 27, of Birmingham
- Roderick Lynn Patterson Jr, 26, also from Birmingham
Emergency officials pronounced Holloman, Booker and McCain dead at the scene. Little Patterson died after being taken to the hospital.
Mr Thurmond said the person targeted in the “attack” was believed to be one of the victims, but did not specify who that person was.
The police chief said investigators received messages indicating “someone was willing to pay to kill that man.”
Police said they believed the attack was targeted because several of the victims had extensive criminal records.
Officials said 17 more people were injured, up from the previous figure of 18. Many people were taken to hospital. Five people remained in the hospital Monday, according to authorities.
Gabriel Eslami, a 24-year-old man, told local news outlet Al.com that he was shot in the buttocks while waiting in line at the Hush Lounge and was taken to hospital.
He described seeing “blood everywhere” and “people’s bodies lying on the sidewalk.”
What do we know about the attackers?
No arrests have been made.
The search for the culprits continues, but little is known about them.
But police believe the incident may have stemmed from a murder-for-hire plot.
Other agencies have also been assisting in the investigation: the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
What’s the bigger picture?
The bloodshed comes amid a spate of gun violence in Birmingham.
Another shooting in Alabama late Sunday left another person dead and at least one injured. Police told local media they did not rule out a connection to the previous night’s incident.
There have been more than 400 mass shootings across the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are injured or killed.
The incident in Birmingham was the city’s second mass shooting in two months and the third quadruple homicide in 2024.
In July, another nightclub shooting left four people dead and 10 injured, and in February, a man was shot dead outside a public library.
