DADEVILLE, Ala. — A small town in Alabama became the latest American community to reckon with gun violence, after four people including a high school football star were killed and at least 28 were injured in a shooting that authorities said happened during a teenager’s birthday party.
Sgt. Jeremy Burkett of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency declined to take questions or identify the victims or the perpetrator during a news conference late Sunday afternoon. Burkett said “a wide variety of injuries” were sustained by 28 people, and “some of those injuries are critical.”
Authorities have been tight-lipped about the shooting, which rocked the town of 3,000 people in Tallapoosa County, roughly 50 miles northeast of Montgomery. Burkett said the scene is safe and there is no risk to the public at this time. He asked for people to provide authorities with tips via phone or email.
“We can confirm that it was tied to a birthday celebration,” Burkett said. “The investigation will be a long and complicated process.”
The party for a 16-year-old girl had been uneventful until the girl’s mother told the crowd of about several dozen people that she had learned somebody there had a gun, said Keenan Cooper, who was hired to DJ the party at the Mahogany Masterpiece dance studio in downtown Dadeville. The mother asked them to leave, Cooper added, but no one did.
“I should have shut it down,” Cooper told The Washington Post on Sunday, standing outside the police tape blocking off the scene of the shooting. He was waiting for police to release his DJ equipment.
The shooting came an hour later. Cooper said he quickly dropped to the ground, then grabbed six kids and pushed them under his DJ booth. He described it as 5 minutes of “nonstop shots.”
Pastor Ben Hayes, who serves as the chaplain for the Dadeville Police Department and for the local high school football team, told The Post that he was present at the hospital Saturday night and that most of the injured were teenagers.
“What we know is that a shooting took place. Four of our friends are dead. Twenty or more wounded,” Hayes said at a vigil Sunday afternoon attended by hundreds. “We’ll never be the same.”
One of those killed was Philstavious “Phil” Dowdell, Hayes said. Phil was a high school senior who planned to attend Jacksonville State University on a football scholarship, the Montgomery Advertiser reported.
“He was a great young man with a bright future. My staff and I are heartbroken and hope that everyone will support his family through this difficult time,” Jacksonville State Coach Rich Rodriguez said in a statement Sunday.
Dowdell’s aunt described him as “a star.”
“I loved to watch him play on the field,” Lashanda Allen said. “I was excited to see him play in college. I was there with him on signing day — everyone cried, he cried. He was excited, he was getting to do exactly what he wanted.”
After college, Dowdell planned to return to Dadeville. “He wanted to give back to the community,” Allen said. The family still doesn’t know exactly what happened Saturday night, she said. It was her niece’s 16th birthday party, she added.
Save for the one block buzzing with police, some news vehicles and people driving by to view the scene, downtown Dadeville was quiet Sunday afternoon. A lone police officer was climbing a ladder toward the roof of Mahogany Masterpiece. And authorities were power washing the sidewalk and front door of the dance studio using a fire tanker.
On Sunday morning, the community reeled. Hayes gathered with dozens of residents at the First Baptist Church and prayed for the first responders and hospital staff dealing with the tragedy. “Some were injured from gunshots and others from falling while running away from the shooter,” Hayes said.
Bobby Presley said a frantic call from his 16-year-old daughter woke him up at about 10 p.m. Saturday. Shakaya Presley had just escaped America’s latest mass killing. She was shot twice through both her thighs, her father told The Post on Sunday.
Presley said he rushed to the hospital and found a chaotic scene. “People were in an uproar trying to find their child,” he said. His daughter is now recovering at home and will see an orthopedic doctor in the coming days to check for nerve damage. Presley, who coaches girls sports, said he’s seen many of the injured teens grow up.
“I’m just emotionally torn apart,” he said. “You don’t expect it to happen to a small town — to Dadeville, Alabama.”
Heidi Smith, a spokeswoman for Lake Martin Community Hospital in Dadeville, said nine of the teenagers treated there were transferred to other hospitals to receive a higher level of care. Five of them were in critical condition, Smith said, adding that there are only a couple of “small rural hospitals” in the county.
The hospital is now offering counseling and mental health services to the distraught community and the victims’ families.
Superintendent Raymond Porter said schools in the area will be providing counseling to children on Monday. “This [incident] does not represent our children and who we are as a community,” Porter said at a Sunday morning news conference.
State officials also issued statements on the shooting.
“This morning, I grieve with the people of Dadeville and my fellow Alabamians. Violent crime has NO place in our state, and we are staying closely updated by law enforcement as details emerge,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) said on Twitter.
President Biden was also briefed on the shooting, according to a note from his team. He and the White House are monitoring the situation and have been in contact with law enforcement officers and local officials to offer support, per the president’s team.
Chris Hand, the Dadeville High School principal, was out of town when he heard the news of the shooting. He’s been in shock since, he told The Post.
Hand also coaches the track team, a sport Phil Dowdell excelled in. Hand was last with Dowdell on Friday night at a track meet in Troy, Ala. Dowdell finished first in the 100-meter dash and had even stepped up to fill in for a teammate who couldn’t compete in another race.
“‘Whatever I can do for the team, I’ll do it,’” Hand recalled Dowdell telling him Friday. “It’s just unreal to me. … If there’s a best representative of the school, it was him, athletically, academically.”
This weekend’s gun violence in Dadeville is the latest of a staggering number of mass killings this year that have ravaged the nation and left an immense toll.
Less than four months into 2023, there have been 163 mass shootings that have killed 228 people and injured 638, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. The group defines mass shootings as those in which four or more people, not including the shooter, are injured or killed.
The tragedy in Dadeville has shaken a city that residents and authorities say is unaccustomed to shootings. However, data shows gun violence is pervasive across the state. With a rate of 23.6 deaths per 100,000 people, Alabama has the fifth-highest rate of gun violence in the United States, according to EveryStat, a site that collects and analyzes data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate of gun deaths has increased 54 percent from 2012 to 2021 in Alabama, compared with a 39 percent increase nationwide.
At the vigil in Dadeville on Sunday afternoon, the hundreds of attendees listened to local community leaders and prayed. Intermittent hands rose toward the sky as pastors prayed before the crowd of people gathered in the parking lot of First Baptist Church Dadeville. Members of the crowd sniffled and wiped away tears. Others stood perfectly still.
A youth pastor, Hunter Baker, closed out the vigil. “Lord help us to love people we haven’t got along with,” Baker said. “Life is just a vapor. It’s here today and gone tomorrow.”
Javaid, Kaur and Villegas reported from Washington.
