Authorities have reported no arrests after four people were killed and 17 injured in what police described as a targeted “hit” by multiple shooters who opened fire outside a popular Alabama nightspot, the Associated Press reports. The shooting late Saturday in the Five Points South entertainment district of Birmingham rocked an area of restaurants and bars that is often bustling on weekend nights. The mass shooting, one of several this year in the city, unnerved residents and left officials pleading for help to solve the crime and address the broader problem of gun violence. “The priority is to find these shooters and get them off our streets,” said Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin. The shooting occurred on the sidewalk and street outside Hush, a lounge in the entertainment district, where bloodstains were still visible on the sidewalk Sunday morning.
Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond said authorities believe the shooting targeted one of the people who was killed, possibly in a murder-for-hire. A vehicle pulled up and “multiple shooters” got out and began firing, then fled the scene, he said. “We believe that there was a ‘hit,’ if you will, on that particular person,” Thurmond said. Police said about 100 shell casings were recovered. Thurmond said law enforcement was working to determine what weapons were used, but they believe some of the gunfire was “fully automatic.” Investigators were trying to determine whether anyone fired back, creating a crossfire. Police said the shooters are believed to have used “machine gun conversion devices” that make semiautomatic weapons fire more rapidly. Officers found two men and a woman on a sidewalk with gunshot wounds and they were pronounced dead there. An additional male gunshot victim was pronounced dead at a hospital.
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