Similar to a horror movie, as gun violence reaches an epidemic level in Birmingham, Alabama authorities are forced to offer a combined reward of $100,000 to help identify shooters who opened fire over the weekend.
In yet another incident of mass shooting in the United States, Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond said four people were killed and seven injured as a result of the gunfire. With no suspects found and no arrests made in the controversial case yet, the police have tightened their noose against the criminals by partnering with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies to step up the investigation. While the tipsters remain anonymous, the FBI is also offering a $50,000 reward, and Crime Stoppers is offering $50,000.
Committed to finding the shooters involved, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said in a press conference on September 23, “I want to make myself very clear on what the priority is: It is to hunt down, capture, arrest and convict the people who are responsible for this mass shooting.’’
The mayor went on to urge the state officials to allot more tools to cities to address the gun violence and called for stricter legislation to fight the problem as the latest incident took place outside a public restaurant in a crowded place often busy on weekends.
Plagued by gun violence, this is the third quadruple homicide of the year apart from the 31 cases of mass killings which occurred in Birmingham, once known for its civil rights movement.
FBI said, “Our federal partners have been a tremendous help so far in working through a lot of the information and evidence that we have recovered.”
As per the police, several victims were just caught in the crossfire as the shooters were just trying to hit one person. However, the detectives are still deliberating on who may have been the intended target of the shooting. Remember, there are no state laws in Alabama to have access to weapons or to ban these devices.
Woodfin posted in a comment on Facebook, “We need our legislators to pass laws that save lives and give local authorities the tools (laws) to arrest those who just drive around and walk around with these weapons.”
