Alabama mass shooting: Birmingham leaders plead for information

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Officials in Birmingham, Alabama, pleaded Monday with members of the public for information leading to arrests in a weekend mass shooting that killed four people and injured more than a dozen others, announcing rewards totaling $100,000.

“We have a laser-like focus on hunting down, finding and capturing and making an arrest that leads to a conviction for those responsible for killing and shooting so many people, especially so many innocent people,” Mayor Randall Woodfin told The Associated Press Monday .

Authorities have still made no arrests after Saturday’s shooting killed four people and left 17 others injured. Police said multiple shooters opened fire on a crowd waiting in line outside a nightspot in Birmingham’s bustling Five Points South district. Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond said they believe the shooters were targeting at least one of the victims in a possible “hit” and that bystanders were caught in the barrage of bullets.

The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward, and Crime Stoppers is offering $50,000, officials said. Tipsters can remain anonymous.

Police identified the three victims found on the sidewalk as Anitra Holloman, 21, of the Birmingham suburb of Bessemer; Tahj Booker, 27, of Birmingham; and Carlos McCain, 27, of Birmingham. The fourth victim was identified Monday as Roderick Lynn Patterson Jr., 26.

Tahj Booker was out with his cousin celebrating his high school alumni week on Saturday night when he was killed, said Booker’s aunt Sheila Everson. Her son, Ra’Darrius Everson, 29, is one of five people still being treated for gun shot wounds in the hospital.

Before Booker was killed on Saturday night, Everson said that he was like a “teddy bear” who loved taking care of his cousin Ra’Darrius’ two young daughters, aged two and six.

The family is not new to gun violence, Everson said. She said she had another nephew shot and killed in Birmingham 2017. As she anxiously waits for her son to receive medical treatment for his wounds, Everson said her family is strongly considering leaving Birmingham altogether to escape the constant fear of guns.

“They took two of my nephews. I’ll be damned if I let them take three. So we -- my family -- we have to get up out of here,” Everson said. She added, “It’s sad to say that, because for me, we were told when I was young that Birmingham was a retirement state, but now Birmingham is like Chicago or Iraq, you know. We’re in a war zone. It’s killing women and kids and innocent people now.”

The shooting — Birmingham’s third quadruple homicide of the year — has put a spotlight on a city once best known for its role in the Civil Rights Movement but more recently plagued by gun violence.

Three of the nation’s 31 mass killings this year occurred in Birmingham, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. Birmingham, a city of about 200,000, has seen 114 homicides this year. Chicago, with more than 10 times the population, has seen a little over 400 homicides this year.

“I think America has a gun culture problem. I think when you bring that to the South, it’s even more pervasive,” Woodfin said Monday.

He said two things that have changed in recent years are the types of weapons available and the prevalence of devices, sometimes known as Glock switches, that convert semi-automatic weapons to more rapid fire.

Police said about 100 shell casings were recovered at the scene of Saturday’s shooting. The number of bullets fired and audio that captured the rapid pace of the shots has led authorities to believe the weapons used fired like automatics, Woodfin said. While conversion devices that speed the firing pace of semi-automatic weapons are banned under federal law, he urged state lawmakers to ban them as well, a move that would help local law enforcement crack down on particular guns.

The Birmingham mayor also urged state and federal officials to give cities more tools to address gun violence. He put both hands behind his back during a Sunday press conference as a metaphor of what it is like for cities to combat crime.

Woodfin, a gun owner, said he believes people have the right to protect themselves and their homes, but he said the weapons made to fire like an automatic spray bullets everywhere “producing more casualties and more people shot.”

Woodfin, who lost his brother and nephew to gun violence several years ago, said his calls to victims’ families remind him of his mother’s screams when she learned his brother was killed.

“These aren’t easy calls. This isn’t an easy conversation. It gives me the motivation to figure out a way to solve this so more mothers aren’t grieving.” Woodfin said.

___ This story has been corrected to show that there have been 31 mass killings in the nation this year, not 23 mass shootings.

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