A manhunt in Alabama for a suspect in the shooting outside a nightclub that killed four people and wounded 17 on Saturday night entered its second full day on Monday.
The shooting in Birmingham was at least the 24th mass murder in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The archive defines a mass murder as one in which four victims are killed or wounded.
Such a high rate of mass murders has helped fuel calls for more substantial gun control in the US, though they have mostly gone unheeded in Congress.
Police officials said Saturday’s mass murder occurred when multiple people pulled up outside the nightclub in a vehicle, jumped out of the car, opened fire and then fled the scene.
The shooting was not random and appeared aimed at one of the four people killed, police said. But other victims were uninvolved bystanders caught in the crossfire, police have said.
When the police arrived, they found two men and a woman on a sidewalk with gunshot wounds. They were pronounced dead at the scene.
An additional male gunshot victim was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Officials said on Sunday that more than 100 shell casings were found in the area – and that at least four of the 17 wounded were suffering life-threatening injuries.
On social media, one user described having witnessed the shooting while in line outside Hush – a lounge in the entertainment district – and being hit by a bullet.
“All of a sudden over 100 shots went off. I start running then out of nowhere I can’t feel my leg and I fall,” the social media user in question wrote. “When I get up, I look back and just see bodies laid out and smoke everywhere.
“I had a bullet enter my left butt cheek and come out of my thigh, millimeters from my main artery.” The user hailed the University of Alabama-Birmingham hospital’s trauma team for the emergency treatment it subsequently provided, saying it did “amazing work”.
Police believe that those responsible for the shooting on Saturday used illegal gun conversion devices, according to CNN. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) states that such devices can “convert semi-automatic pistols and rifles into fully automatic weapons in less than 60 seconds”.
The Birmingham mayor, Randall Woodfin, addressed the victims and their families on Sunday at a news conference. He said that the community owed it to them to do “everything we can to take these shooters, killers, off the streets”.
Woodfin mentioned how Saturday marked the second mass murder in Birmingham since 13 July. And he urged Alabama legislators to restrict access to high-powered assault weapons.
“Do not tell me this is not solvable. At the same time, do not tell me this is only on the police to solve,” Woodfin added.
“Elected officials – locally, statewide and nationally – have a duty to solve this American crisis, this American epidemic of gun violence.”
The Birmingham police department said that they were collaborating with federal authorities – including the ATF – in the investigation into Saturday’s shooting.