WASHINGTON – US law enforcement officials are pleading for residents to come forward with information on a weekend shooting that devastated a small Alabama town, leaving four people dead and 28 injured at a teen’s birthday party.
By Monday morning, 36 hours after the tragedy, state and local officials had yet to release any details about a possible suspect or suspects, the motive for the shooting, the identities and ages of the victims or how they died.
Authorities have not said whether they have detained any suspects or if the shooters remain at large or died in the Saturday night gunfire that shattered the calm of Dadeville, a tight-knit community of some 3,000 residents northeast of the state capital Montgomery.
Sergeant Jeremy Burkett, a spokesman for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA), confirmed the death and injury toll to reporters, adding that some victims remained in critical condition.
“I assure you we are doing everything we can” to advance the investigation, Burkett told AFP on Monday.
Over the span of two press conferences Sunday, however, authorities provided scant information and took no questions, with Burkett saying investigators were interviewing witnesses.
“We’re not going to rush to failure,” he said.
“This is also a very fluid situation,” Burkett added, as he implored residents to come forward with information that might shed light on what happened.
“I cannot stress this enough: we absolutely need you to share it,” the officer said.
US President Joe Biden, who has long sought tighter gun safety measures, weighed in on Sunday to offer condolences and decry the “outrageous and unacceptable” gun violence against children.
Hospital officials said the majority of those shot were teens, and witnesses said the victims had been attending a Sweet 16 birthday party held at a rented dance studio on the community’s town square.
