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A shooting in a popular nightlife area of Birmingham, Alabama left four people dead and 18 injured. Many of the victims were caught in the crossfire, police said early Sunday. Authorities have asked the public for tips as they search for the shooter.
Officer Truman Fitzgerald said in an email that the shooting happened just after 11 p.m. Saturday in the Five Points South entertainment district.
Officers found two men and one woman on the sidewalk with gunshot wounds and were pronounced dead at the scene. The other male shooting victim was pronounced dead at a hospital, Fitzgerald said.
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According to police, a preliminary investigation revealed that “multiple suspects opened fire into a large group of people in an outdoor public area.”
“Investigators believe this shooting was not random and stemmed from an isolated incident in which multiple victims were caught in the crossfire,” Fitzgerald said.
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Fitzgerald said injured people began being taken to hospitals, and by early Sunday morning police had identified 18 victims with injuries, several of which were life-threatening.
Authorities believe some of the victims were targeted, Police Chief Scott Thurmond said at a news conference Sunday morning.
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“The suspects arrived on scene in a vehicle, exited the vehicle, opened fire, returned to their vehicle and fled the scene,” Thurmond said.
No arrests were immediately made. A massive manhunt for the shooter was ongoing, and Birmingham police have contacted federal law enforcement agencies for assistance in the investigation, officials told AL.com. Anyone with information is asked to contact authorities.
“Rest assured, we will do everything in our power to locate, identify and hunt down those responsible for attacking our members of the public,” Mr Fitzgerald said.
The Five Points South neighborhood has entertainment venues, restaurants and bars and tends to be busy on Saturday nights.
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