Four individuals were killed during a Sweet 16 party earlier this month in a shooting at a dance studio in Dadeville, Alabama, according to a report by CNN affiliate WBMA. State detectives reportedly collected 89 shell casings and suspect seven firearms were used.
On Tuesday, a special agent with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency provided fresh information during a bail hearing for several shooting suspects, as reported by WBMA. The station reported that in the next 48 hours, a judge in Tallapoosa County would determine whether or not to order the detention of five of the six suspects in the shooting that took place on April 15.
According to CNN stations WTVM and WFSA, a new element was revealed when the investigator stated that one of the deceased victims may have fired first. The investigator allegedly informed the court that 23-year-old Corbin Holston was discovered dead at the dancing studio with a gun to his chest.
As the birthday celebration for 16-year-old Alexis Dowdell progressed, a shooting erupted, according to witnesses. The coroner for Tallapoosa County confirmed the deaths of Marsiah Emmanuel Collins, 19, Shaunkivia “Keke” Nicole Smith, 17, Holston, and Philstavious “Phil” Dowdell, Alexis’s brother, who was 18. WTVM and WFSA reported that the state investigator said as many as sixty persons were in the dance studio when the incident occurred.
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Fourteen-year-old Tyreese “Ty Reik” McCullough, seventeen-year-old Travis McCullough, twenty-year-old Wilson LaMar Hill Jr., nineteen-year-olds Johnny Letron Brown and Willie George Brown Jr., and twenty-nine-year-old Wilson LaMar Hill Jr. are all charged with four counts of reckless murder for their alleged roles in the April 15 shooting that killed four people and injured thirty-two more.
CNN has attempted to contact a lawyer for the accused. According to the three outlets, the hearing for the Browns and Hill was available to the public, while the hearing for the McCulloughs was closed, and the sixth suspect was not present in court. Authorities have not revealed whether or if the suspects had any relation to Alexis’s birthday celebration.
For comment, CNN has contacted the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Authorities have not spoken publicly on a possible motivation for the deaths that shocked the small Alabama city and brought it together with a number of other American communities grieving the effects of gun violence in 2018. There have been more than 173 mass shootings, reported in the United States so far in 2018.
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