WASHINGTON, April 18, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - 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 23 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, or the
motive for the shooting.

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.

In a statement sent to AFP, the Tallapoosa County forensic examiner said the
four people who died were three Black men and one Black woman aged between 17
and 23 years old.

Twenty-eight other people were injured, some seriously, Alabama police
spokesman Sergeant Jeremy Burkett said. He said some 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.

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.

- 'Saw blood coming out of my arm' -

Hundreds of residents gathered Sunday evening outside a Dadeville church for
a vigil where people comforted one another and prayed.

Taniya Cox attended the event in a hospital gown and an arm cast after being
treated for what she said were two gunshot wounds, according to the
Montgomery Advertiser newspaper.

"The mother said whoever had guns had to get out and they didn't get out and
five minutes later the shooting started," the Advertiser quoted Cox as
saying.

"I ran in front of a bullet and got shot. I didn't know what was going on, I
just saw blood coming out of my arm."

Cox said that after the initial gunfire she returned to the room and saw
"other shooters" present.

"They told me to get out of the way, or I would get shot," she said.

Frustration over the police's tight-lipped approach appeared to be mounting.

"There's way more information they can give," a vigil attendee identified as
Teneeshia Johnson said on National Public Radio.

Among the fatalities was Philstavious Dowdell, 18, a local student athlete
who was weeks from graduating and set to attend Jacksonville State University
on a football scholarship. He was celebrating his sister Alexis's 16th
birthday when gunfire erupted.

"He was a great young man with a bright future. My staff and I are
heartbroken," Jacksonville head coach Rich Rodriguez said in a statement.

The United States, a country of around 330 million people, is awash with some
400 million guns, and deadly mass shootings are regular occurrences.

Efforts to tighten gun controls have been paralyzed for years in Congress.