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Two teenagers have been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the Alabama shooting that killed four people at a Sweet 16 birthday party, investigators announced Wednesday.
District Attorney Mike Segrest said the pair, ages 17 and 16 and both from Tuskegee, Ala., will be charged as adults. Prosecutors will ask a judge to hold him without bail, he said, with a bail hearing required before Friday.
Segrest said four people remain in the hospital in critical condition and more charges are pending.
“We will make sure that all the victims have justice, not just those who have died,” he said.
The violence rocked Dadeville, a sleepy town of 3,200. In addition to the four young people who died, 32 others were injured, some critically.
Segrest said grand juries typically meet in Tallapoosa County in March and September, but he said he will remind grand jurors to seek indictments before September.
“If we can establish the facts, we will ask our supreme judge to come back,” he said.
Aspiring athletes, dead players
The shooting happened during Alexis Dowdell’s birthday party, which was held at a dance studio across from the city courthouse. Witnesses said a crowd began shooting moments after Dowdell’s mother paused the celebration to ask the gunman to leave.
The birthday girl’s brother, Philstavious (Phil) Dowdell, died in his sister’s arms. He and the other victims were high school seniors, and their families were left planning a funeral instead of a graduation celebration. Two other youths were also killed.
As it happens6:40 a.mStudent killed in Alabama shooting has bright future, pastor says
Four young people were killed and dozens more injured in a shooting at a Sweet 16 birthday party Saturday night in Dadeville, Ala. Pastor Ben Hayes is the senior pastor at Dadeville First Baptist Church, and chaplain for the Dadeville Police Department and the Dadeville High School football team. . He personally knew both victims. He spoke with As It Happens host Nil Köksal.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said only that a shell casing from a handgun had been recovered, as there was no evidence that a high-powered rifle was used. Investigators are repeatedly asking the public for information, including video.
Besides Phil Dowdell, a star wide receiver with plans to play college football, who killed fellow senior Dadeville High Shaunkivia Nicole (Keke) Smith, 17, athlete-turned-team manager; Opelika High School 2022 graduate Marsiah Emmanuel (Siah) Collins, 19, a singer who wants to start college this fall; and 2018 Dadeville High graduate Corbin Dahmontrey Holston, 23, another former athlete at the school.
Holston had gone to the party to check on a younger family member who feared trouble, Holston’s mother Janett Heard told AL.com. Relatives told the news outlet that the shooting began shortly after Holston arrived, and he pulled the young relative to safety.
In 2020, Alabama had the fifth highest death rate in the nation, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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