Gunmen opened fire in a popular entertainment district in Birmingham, Ala., on Saturday night, killing four people and wounding at least 17 others in what appeared to be a targeted attack, the police said. The authorities said they were still looking for the shooters.
The police responded to calls about a shooting in the Five Points South area just after 11 p.m., Truman Fitzgerald, a spokesman for the Birmingham Police Department, said at a news conference. Two men and one woman were found dead at the scene, he said, while another man died at a nearby hospital.
The police believe the person whom the gunmen were targeting was among those killed, Scott Thurmond, the city’s police chief, said at a news conference on Sunday morning. He said the shooters had approached the scene in a vehicle, got out, opened fire and then fled in the vehicle. The police said they believed the shooters had used machine gun conversion devices, which alter semiautomatic weapons so that a single pull of the trigger can empty a gun’s entire magazine.
Other victims “were caught in the crossfire,” Mr. Fitzgerald said in a statement on Sunday morning.
On Sunday evening, the police identified three of the deceased victims as Anitra Holloman, 21, of Bessemer, Ala., and Tahj Booker and Carlos McCain, both 27 years old and from Birmingham.
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SKIP ADVERTISEMENTAt least four of the injured victims suffered life-threatening wounds, Mr. Fitzgerald said. All the victims were standing on the sidewalk or in the street, he said.
Four injured victimskubiwin, in conditions ranging from good to critical, were still being treated at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital on Sunday morning, said Alicia Rohan, a spokeswoman for the university. The hospital had treated 12 victims, including one person who died.