Over the weekend, a shooting at a Sweet 16 party killed four people and hurt at least 28 others. Investigators in Dadeville, Alabama, are still trying to figure out what caused the chaos.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said that the shooting started around 10:30 p.m. Saturday and that authorities haven’t said anything about a suspect or a possible reason. They also haven’t said what led up to the shooting.
Philstavious Dowdell, the brother of the birthday girl, was one of the people who died. He was a skilled and well-liked football player in the community, according to Ben Hayes, the chaplain for Dadeville High School’s football team, and Keenan Cooper, who was DJing at the party when the shooting started.
Just a few weeks before the killing, Dowdell told the assistant football coach, Michael Taylor, “If anything ever happened to me, even when I go to college, take care of my two sisters.”
Taylor and Amy Jackson, who says she is Smith’s cousin, say that Keke Smith, a student in high school, was also killed.
Sgt. Jeremy J. Burkett of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said that the shooting hurt dozens of partygoers in different ways, and as of Sunday afternoon, some of them were still in serious condition.
Hayes, who is also a church minister and chaplain for the Dadeville Police Department, spent Saturday night at a hospital where some of the victims were taken and talked to students and families who had gathered there.
“It’s a very close-knit neighborhood. Everybody knows everybody. This is hard because of this.” He also said, “I knew these kids personally, and I think most people did.”
Teneeshia Goodman-Johnson, a member of the Dadeville city council, told a CNN affiliate that the community’s main goal should be to help kids deal with their grief.
“Their physical, mental, and emotional health is my top priority right now,” Johnson told WAKA. “We need to check on them and make sure they’re okay.”
Burkett said that detectives are still getting more information about the shooting.
“We’ve been getting updates all day, and we’re definitely trying to confirm and figure out who was in the venue,” he said.
The sergeant also told anyone who knew something about what happened to get in touch with police. Burkett said, “I can’t say this enough, but we need you to share it.”
Two people were killed and four others were hurt in a shooting in a busy park in Louisville, Kentucky, less than two hours before the Dadeville event. The Gun Violence Archive says that after the violence this weekend, there have been more than 160 mass killings so far in 2023. This is more than the number of days in the year.
Like CNN, the archive describes a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot, not including the person doing the shooting.
In a statement on Sunday, President Joe Biden talked about the killings in Dadeville and Louisville. He said he is praying for the families of the victims and called on Congress to pass gun control laws.
“Where has our country gone that kids can’t go to a birthday party without being afraid? When parents have to worry every time their children leave the house to go to school, the movies, or the park?” Biden said.
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What Do We Know About the Victims Who Died?
Even though the names of those who died haven’t been released yet, several people who knew Dowdell have said that he was one of them. They said he was a popular student-athlete with a lot of promise.
Taylor said that he had been teaching Dowdell since he was 9 years old. He called him a great athlete and said, “God blessed him to be able to do anything you put in his hands.”
Cooper said that Dowdell was about to graduate in a few weeks and had been given a football scholarship to play at Alabama’s Jacksonville State University.
Sunday, Rich Rodriguez, the head coach of Jacksonville State, said that Dowdell was “a great young man with a bright future.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Philstavious Dowdell’s family and the families of the other people who died in last night’s senseless tragedy,” Rodriguez said.
Johnson, a member of the city council, said that she knew Dowdell and two of the other victims. She said that these kids were smart and had “very bright futures.”
“Very athletic, very humble, and very respectful children,” Johnson said. “They just wanted to have fun, and that was taken away from them.”
Jackson named the second victim as KeKe Smith. She said she is Smith’s cousin and that the student was “always smiling.” Jackson said that Smith’s mother told her that her cousin had died.
Smith was a high school student and was excited to go to the University of Alabama. Taylor also said that Smith had died and that she was a student manager on the track team at Dadeville High School.
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During The Shooting, Some People Were Seriously Hurt
Those who were hurt in the shooting were taken to several hospitals. At least 15 teens were taken to the Lake Martin Community Hospital in Dadeville.
Sunday, hospital spokeswoman Heidi Smith said that six of the hurt people were treated and sent home, while the other nine were sent to other hospitals. At the last time, this was checked, five of these kids were in very bad shape, and four were doing fine.
Spokesperson Susan Foy said that the shooting at the party sent “multiple patients” to the nearby Russell Medical Center.
Foy said, “They were either treated and sent home, or they were moved to other facilities.” She didn’t say how many people came in or how old they were.
Pike Road Schools said in a Facebook post that at least one of the people hurt was a student from the town of Pike Road, which is about 60 miles southwest of Dadeville and on the edge of Montgomery. No one knows what kind of damage the student got or how they are doing.
“Many of our kids know the people who were hurt in this accident. We know for sure that one of our kids was there, and we are still praying for their full recovery,” the statement said.
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