Two teens charged with murder following Alabama 16th birthday celebration shooting

A crowd gathered for a rally to commemorate the victims of the shooting. Credit: REUTERS/Cheney Orr/File Photo

Two teenagers face murder charges in connection with a 16th birthday party shooting in Alabama that killed four people and injured 32.

Ty Rake McCullough, 17, and Travis McCullough, 16, both from Tuskegee, Alabama, were arrested and charged with four counts of negligent homicide.

This followed a shooting at a dance studio Saturday Mahogany Masterpiece Dance Studio in Dadeville, a small town 50 miles from the state capital of Montgomery. people.

Two teenagers were charged as adults, and prosecutors will ask the judge to detain them without bail.

District Attorney Mike Segrest said: «We're going to make sure all justice goes to the victims, not just the dead.»

The victims celebrated Alexis Dowdell's birthday, which was held at a dance studio near the city's main square.

< p>Witnesses said that the mother of the birthday girl suspended the celebration to ask people with weapons to leave, after which shooting began.

Alexis later recounted how her 18-year-old brother Phil Dowdell died saving her during the attack.

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He pushed her to the floor when the shots rang out and died in her arms.< /p> Philstavious & #39;Phil' Dowdell (left) and KeKe Nicole Smith were killed

After the charges were announced, the police declined to say what they believed was the motive for the mass shooting.

Sergeant Jeremy Burkett of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said: «We can't establish a motive right now because it will be part of an ongoing investigation. We can't share this.»

Handgun casings were found at the scene, and there was no evidence that a high-powered rifle was used.

Phil Dowdell was the star wide receiver with plans playing college football.

The other dead were aspiring athlete Shonkivia Nicole «KeKe» Smith, 17, up-and-coming singer Marcia Emmanuel «Saya» Collins, 19, and Corbin Damontri Holston, 23.< /p>

According to his family, Mr. Holston went to the party to check on the youngest family member amid fears of trouble.

At the party, Alexis' mother, LaTonya Allen, turned on the lights after hearing rumors that someone was carrying a gun .

She used the microphone in the DJ booth to announce, «If anyone here has a gun, you need to leave because we're here to celebrate the 16th anniversary of Alexis's Sweet 16.»

When no one answered, she turned off the lights again, after which shots rang out.

At least 15 teenagers received gunshot wounds in the hospital. in a hospital.

Ms. Allen was hit twice as she stood in the doorway.

Witnesses did not describe seeing any altercation before the shooting started.

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How the motive remained unclear. Alexis Dowdell told CNN: «Why pull a gun at a kid's party and just start shooting and killing other innocent people and hurting others?»

Alabama ranked fifth in 2020. gun deaths in any state in America, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The attack was the 160th mass shooting in the US this year, according to the Archive of Gun Violence. /p>

The organization defines mass shootings as attacks in which four or more people are killed or injured by gunfire.