At least four people died and around 20 others, mostly teenagers, were injured when a gunman opened fire on Saturday April 15 during a birthday party in a town in the southern United States, a few days after a similar drama at a bank in Kentucky.
The shootings occurred around 10:30 p.m. in Dadeville, a small town in Alabama, local authorities said, without indicating whether a suspect was in custody. They were targeting the Mahogany Masterpiece, a downtown dance hall where a teenage girl was celebrating her sixteenth birthday. A bullet hole was still visible on Sunday on the glass door of the building, surrounded by the famous yellow police banners.
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“This act tragically cost the lives of four people and left many injured”said Sunday an official of the authorities of the State, Jeremy Burkett, during a press conference.
An open investigation
Jeremy Burkett later said 28 people had been injured, several seriously, and urged residents to share any information they might have about the attack. Jeremy Burkett, however, did not provide further details on the circumstances of the tragedy or the shooter’s motive.
Law enforcement believe an altercation led to the tragedy, according to local broadcaster WRBL. An investigation is opened.
Lake Martin Hospital received 15 injured, including “a majority of teenagers”, one of its managers, Heidi Smith, told AFP. Other injured were treated elsewhere, she said.
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The birthday girl’s brother was among those killed, their grandmother told the ‘Montgomery Advertiser’ newspaper. It was about a teenager without history, “who always had a smile”she confided.
The fear of parents
US President Joe Biden expressed regret in a statement that America is “again bereaved” by shots.
“What has our country become when children cannot go to a birthday party without fear? When parents have to worry every time their children walk through the door to school, the cinema, or go to the park? »
The democrat is moved, after each shooting, by the recurrence of these massacres. Since his inauguration, he has taken a series of decrees to better regulate firearms, but his powers are limited, because Congress is competent in the matter. But the Republicans are very reluctant to any major change, and many elected officials are under the influence of the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), the first American arms lobby.
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The local political leaders of this state won over to the Conservatives have also expressed their ” pain “but were careful not to call for legislative change. “Violent crime has no place in our state”reacted on Twitter the Republican Governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, while Senator Katie Britt said she had ” broken heart “.
The United States pays a very heavy price for the dissemination of firearms on its territory and the ease with which Americans have access to them. Saturday evening, other shootings left at least two dead and four injured in a park in Louisville, Kentucky (east central), according to local police. It was in this same city that a young man had opened fire on April 10 in the bank which employed him, killing five people.
