Four people were killed and 17 others injured when multiple shooters opened fire Saturday in what police described as a targeted “hit” on one of the people killed at a popular nightlife spot in Birmingham, Alabama.
The shooting happened shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday in Five Points South, a district filled with entertainment venues, restaurants and bars that is often crowded on weekend nights. The mass shooting, one of several this year in the city, unnerved residents and left city officials pleading for help to both solve the crime and address the broader problem of gun violence.
“The priority is to find these shooters and get them off our streets,” Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said at a Sunday press conference.
The shooting occurred on the sidewalk and street outside Hush, a lounge in the entertainment district. Blood stains were visible on the sidewalk outside the venue on Sunday morning.
Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond said authorities believe the shooting targeted one of the people who was killed, possibly in a murder-for-hire. He said a vehicle pulled up and “multiple shooters” got out and began firing, then fled the scene.
“We believe that there was a ‘hit,’ if you will, on that particular person,” Thurmond said.
Police said approximately 100 shell casings were recovered at the scene. Thurmond said law enforcement was working to determine what weapons were used, but they believe some of the gunfire was “fully automatic.” Investigators were also trying to determine whether anyone fired back, creating crossfire.
In a statement late Sunday, police said the shooters are believed to have used “machine gun conversion devices.” The devices make semi-automatic weapons fire more rapidly.
Some surviving victims critically injured
Police said officers found two men and a woman on a sidewalk with gunshot wounds and they were pronounced dead there. An additional male gunshot victim was pronounced dead at a hospital, according to police.
Police identified the three victims found on the sidewalk as Anitra Holloman, 21, of the Birmingham suburb of Bessemer; Tahj Booker, 27, of Birmingham; and Carlos McCain, 27, of Birmingham. The fourth victim pronounced dead at the hospital was pending identification.
By early Sunday, after victims began showing up at hospitals, police had identified 17 people with injuries, some of them life-threatening. Four of the surviving victims, in conditions ranging from good to critical, were being treated at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital on Sunday afternoon, according to Alicia Rohan, a UAB spokeswoman.
Gabriel Eslami, 24, of Trussville, said he was in a long line of people waiting to get into the club when “all of the sudden, gun shots everywhere.”
He took off running. “I look back and there are bodies laid out on the sidewalk with gun smoke still in the air. It looked like something from a horror movie,” Eslami said.
He said he didn’t realize he was wounded until he suddenly lost feeling in his leg. A friend took him to the hospital, where he was treated and released.
A popular nightspot rocked by gunfire
The area of Birmingham is popular with young adults because of its proximity to the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the plethora of nearby restaurants and bars.
Geoffrey Boshell, a 22-year-old biomedical engineering student who lives nearby, said he was working on a school project when he heard a burst of rapid pops that he said sounded like automatic gunfire.
“I heard it, looked out my window and immediately see people screaming, fleeing the scene,” Boshell said.
The shooting in the bustling and popular area was unnerving, he said. “I’m not sure scared is the right word. Just very disturbed that it was happening right outside where you are living.”
The shooting was the 31st mass killing of 2024, of which 23 were shootings, according to James Alan Fox, a criminologist and professor at Northeastern University, who oversees a mass killings database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with the university.
Three of the nation’s 23 mass shootings this year were in Birmingham, including two earlier quadruple homicides.
Woodfin expressed frustration at what he described as an epidemic of gun violence in America and the city.
Mayor pleads for a solution to gun violence
“We find ourselves in 2024, where gun violence is at an epidemic level, an epidemic crisis in our country. And the city of Birmingham, unfortunately finds itself at the tip of that spear,” he said.
The Birmingham mayor also urged state and federal officials to give cities more tools to address gun violence. He put both hands behind his back to illustrate what it is like for cities to combat crime. Alabama last year abolished the requirement to get a permit to carry a concealed handgun in public.
Woodfun said there is an “element” in the city that is too comfortable carrying Glock switches — which convert semi-automatic handguns to deliver more rapid fire — and assault-style rifles with the intent of doing harm.
“Elected officials locally, statewide and nationally have a duty to solve this American crisis, this American epidemic of gun violence,” the mayor said.
The Biden administration was coordinating with federal, state and local officials in their investigations into the shooting, Stef Feldman, director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, said in a statement.
“President Biden and Vice President Harris join Americans across the nation in praying for the families affected by this senseless violence,” Feldman said.
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Associated Press writer Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this report.