Birmingham Bloodshed: 4 Lives Lost, 17 Injured in Deadly Shooting Rampage – $100,000 Reward Offered for Killer’s Capture

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[Watch China, September 24, 2024](Watch China reporter Gao Yun compiled) Over the past weekend, a mass shooting occurred in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, resulting in 4 deaths and 17 injuries. . Police said it was a premeditated attack, with multiple gunmen opening fire outside a popular nightclub before fleeing. The local police, in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies, have offered a reward of up to $100,000, hoping that the public can provide clues to help identify the multiple gunmen. It is forbidden to create mirror websites on Chinese websites. Return to the genuine Chinese website.

The incident occurred late at night on Saturday (September 21) local time, outside the Hush Lounge in the Five Points South entertainment district in Birmingham, which was originally a bustling area with many restaurants and bars and bustling with people on weekends.

According to CNN, Birmingham Police Department officer Truman Fitzgerald said that after 11 p.m. last Saturday, police received a report of a shooting and rushed to the scene, finding that three people had lost vital signs. The fourth victim was taken to the hospital and died.

Police have released the identities of the victims: Anitra Holloman, 21, Tahj Booker, 27, Carlos McCain, 27, and Roderick Lynn Patterson Jr., 26.

Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond said this may be a premeditated “assassination” operation. It was described that multiple gunmen got out of a car, opened fire on the crowd and quickly fled the scene. The police collected about 100 shell casings at the scene. In addition to the four victims, 17 people were injured in the shooting, at least four of whom were in life-threatening conditions. As of the press conference on Monday (September 23), 12 of the injured had been discharged from the hospital and five were still receiving treatment in the hospital.

As the murderer is still at large, the Birmingham Police Department is cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other agencies to investigate, calling on those with information to provide clues, and has set up a special QR code to facilitate information collection.

Frank Barefield Jr., president of Crime Stoppers of Metro Alabama, said authorities have received more than 50 tips related to the shooting.

Carlton Peeples, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Birmingham field office, said the FBI is providing additional resources to local police to assist with the investigation.

Fitzgerald thanked federal partners for their help, saying they were instrumental in processing a large amount of information and evidence, and he also mentioned that police were carefully reviewing surveillance video near the shooting scene.

Here are more details about the mass shooting:

Premeditated murder

Police believe that the gunman was assassinating a specific target and that the other victims were likely killed by mistake.

“There are people who are willing to pay to kill people,” Chief Thurmond said Sunday.

Investigators are working to determine who the gunman’s intended target was, but have not yet said whether the shooting was gang-related or confirmed whether the intended target was among the dead.

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin told CNN that the city is doing its best to catch the killer. He said: “Our top priority is to catch the gunman who committed this serious crime and make sure they are brought to justice.”

Five Points South is a bustling area known for its many restaurants, nightclubs, bars and live music venues, located close to the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus and downtown.

A horror movie-like scene

Gabriel Eslami, 24, was waiting in line outside a Hush store when gunfire rang out around 11 p.m.

“All of a sudden there were gunshots everywhere and I tried to run for my life,” Eslami said. In less than three seconds, he felt his legs lose feeling and fell to the ground.

Eslami described the scene he saw next as a “horror movie.”

“There were bodies all over the sidewalks and the air was thick with gun smoke,” he said. “Shoes were scattered all over the ground because people had dropped them trying to escape. I saw people hiding behind cars, hiding under cars.”

Eslami was taken to hospital for treatment of the gunshot wound, where he said doctors told him the bullet missed his artery by just millimeters.

“I was lucky to escape with only minor injuries, but some people never returned home that night. It’s a feeling that is hard to describe in words,” said Eslami.

Another witness, Dajon Singleton, recalled that he had planned to go to the bar that night but heard “distraught screams.”

“There were people everywhere. Some were crying, some were screaming, people were running around, it was a very chaotic scene.” Singleton witnessed the chaos at the shooting scene, and he also saw five or six people being carried on stretchers.

Birmingham mayor: Gun violence is an ‘epidemic’

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said the city was working “extraordinarily hard” to catch the killer.

Woodfin stressed that gun violence in Birmingham has reached “epidemic” proportions and called for stricter laws to address the problem.

While crime rates are trending down nationwide, Birmingham saw an uptick earlier this year, according to FBI data. The national murder rate in the first quarter of 2024 was down more than 26% from the same period in 2023. However, as of March 4, Birmingham police reported 17 murders this year, compared with 12 in the same period last year, a 41.7% increase.

Police suspect Saturday’s gunman used illegal gun modification devices that can change the trigger mechanism of a gun, turning it into an automatic weapon capable of firing rapidly.

According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the conversion device “converts semi-automatic pistols and rifles into fully automatic weapons in less than a minute.”

The federal government defines these small devices as illegal machine guns on their own. Even without a matching firearm, it is illegal to own these devices on their own.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Birmingham announced an operation in July to combat these devices, commonly known as “switches.”

Mayor Woodfin called the devices on social media “the greatest public safety threat our city and state currently faces.”

While federal law specifically prohibits possession of the devices, Woodfin expressed concern that Alabama has no corresponding state law.

“We need lawmakers to pass laws that will save lives and give local law enforcement more power to arrest those who carelessly carry these weapons,” he wrote in a Facebook comment.

A bill to outlaw Glock switches in Alabama has been introduced in the state House of Representatives to be debated in the 2025 legislative session. A similar bill passed the House last year but failed to reach a vote in the Senate before the end of the legislative session.

“Justice will be served”

In the face of this tragedy, Mayor Woodfin said his top priority is to support the families of the victims. He said in a statement: “At this moment, my heart is filled with the families whose lives have suddenly been taken away, the innocent people who are struggling with death, and the children who have experienced loss and grief too early… You who have lost your loved ones will eventually see justice served.”

Woodfin reiterated at the press conference that society cannot provide any shelter for criminals who wantonly kill people. He said: “We must not condone these people. They should not feel safe in our communities and should not be at large anywhere.”

Source: Watch China

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