BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — A mass shooting left four people dead and 18 wounded in a popular neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama, with many victims caught in the crossfire, police said Sunday morning. Authorities are asking the public for information in an effort to find the shooters.
The shooting happened shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday in Five Points South, a neighborhood filled with entertainment venues, restaurants and bars that is often crowded on weekend nights.
Several suspects pulled up in a vehicle, got out, fired shots, got back in the vehicle and fled, Police Chief Scott Thurmond said at a news conference Sunday morning. He described the shooting as possibly a “hit” for hire.
Officers found two men and a woman shot on a sidewalk and pronounced them dead at the scene. Another man shot was pronounced dead at a hospital, police said.
Authorities believe the intended target was among the dead, Thurmond said at the news conference, where he was joined by Mayor Randall Woodfin and officials from the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Investigators believe other victims were caught in the crossfire.
By early Sunday, after victims began arriving at hospitals, police had identified 18 people with injuries, some of them life-threatening, Officer Truman Fitzgerald said in an email.
No arrests were immediately made. Anyone with information was asked to contact authorities.
Associated Press writer Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this report.
