Two Alabama mass shootings leave total seven dead, nine wounded
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Birmingham police department officer Truman Fitzgerald says investigators believe one was a “targeted shooting” before the suspect fled in a vehicle.
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Phoenix Police officers watch protesters rally on June 2, 2020, in Phoenix, during demonstrations over the death of George Floyd. (AP)
The city of Birmingham witnessed two mass shootings on Saturday that left seven people dead and nine wounded.
A shooting outside a Birmingham home claimed the lives of three people, including a child, and four others were killed in a nightclub shooting on Saturday, Alabama police announced.
According to a social media video of Birmingham police department officer Truman Fitzgerald, officers responded to a complaint of gunshots outside a nightclub located on the 3400 Block of 27th Street North shortly after 11 pm.
On the pavement close to the nightclub, Birmingham fire and rescue officials declared one individual dead, and Fitzgerald reported that two women inside the club were found dead as well. At the University of Alabama at Birmingham hospital, at least nine other patients were receiving treatment for gunshot wounds, and a second individual was pronounced dead.
Fitzgerald said investigators believe at least one suspect fired rounds into the nightclub from the street.
Birmingham police are receiving assistance from federal law enforcement agencies and have asked residents to give in footage from home surveillance cameras.
Read more: Alabama police department disbanded after racist messages revealed
In the other incident, police were called to a car accident site in the 1700 block of Indian Summer Drive in Birmingham at 5:20 pm. Fitzgerald added that police discovered a car in a house's front yard that looked like it had been shot into.
A man, a woman, and a young child—possibly as young as five years old—all had gunshot wounds inside the car. He added that all three of them were declared dead at the scene by the Birmingham fire and rescue team.
Fitzgerald noted that investigators believe this was a “targeted shooting” before the suspect fled in a vehicle.
The motive remains undisclosed as police finalize their investigations.
In comparison to other similarly large and rich countries, the United States is a glaring outlier since guns are the top cause of death for children. The number one cause of death for children in 2020 was gun violence, overtaking sickness and auto accidents.
Gun control has been heavily debated within US politics in recent years after thousands of lives were claimed by gunfire.
However, it is still unclear if any real legislative measures will be taken to protect children and the US population on a broader level.
In 2023, over 42,000 individuals in the United States were killed due to gun violence, Sputnik reported, citing the Gun Violence Archive (GVA).
