Alabama shootings leave 7 dead, police say

Four people died in a shooting with multiple victims at a Birmingham nightclub late Saturday, while an earlier shooting outside a home in the city killed three people including a young child, police in Alabama said.

Officers responded shortly after 11pm to a report of multiple people shot outside a nightclub on the 3400 Block of 27th Street North, Birmingham police department officer Truman Fitzgerald said in a video posted on social media.

Birmingham fire and rescue personnel pronounced one man dead on a sidewalk near the nightclub. Two women were pronounced dead inside the club, Fitzgerald said.

A second man was pronounced dead at University of Alabama at Birmingham hospital, where at least nine additional victims were being treated for gunshot wounds, he said.

Victims were transported by emergency medical personnel or traveled to the hospital on their own, Fitzgerald said.

Investigators believe at least one suspect fired shots into the nightclub from the street, Fitzgerald said. Federal law enforcement authorities are assisting Birmingham police with the investigation.

Separately, police responded around 5.20pm to a report of a vehicle accident in the 1700 block of Indian Summer Drive in Birmingham. Police found a car that appeared to have been shot into located in the front yard of a home, Fitzgerald said.

Inside the vehicle were a man, woman and a small boy believed to be as young as five years old who had suffered gunshot wounds. Birmingham fire and rescue pronounced all three dead at the scene, he said.

Investigators believe they were victims of a “targeted shooting” before the suspect fled in a vehicle, Fitzgerald said.

Police asked area residents to provide footage from home surveillance cameras to assist the investigation.

Source: The Guardian