Multiple victims in Alabama mass shooting were caught in crossfire, police say

Multiple victims in a mass killing in Alabama were caught in the crossfire during a shooting in a popular entertainment district late Saturday, police said

Four people were killed and 18 were wounded in the shooting shortly after 11 p.m. in the 2000 block of Magnolia Avenue South, Birmingham Police Department Officer Truman Fitzgerald said in an email early Sunday.

Officers arrived at the scene in the city’s Five Points South entertainment district and found two men and a woman on a sidewalk with multiple gunshot wounds. They were pronounced dead at the scene by the Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service.

Medical staff at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital pronounced another male gunshot victim dead, Fitzgerald said.

As of 6 a.m. Sunday, police had identified a total of 22 victims with life-threatening and non-life-threatening injuries, he said.

There were no immediate arrests and investigators had not yet determined the intended targets of the shooters, Fitzgerald said.

“Detectives believe the shooting was not random and stemmed from an isolated incident where multiple victims were caught in the crossfire,” Fitzgerald said.

The Five Points South area has numerous entertainment venues, restaurants and bars and often is crowded on Saturday nights.