DADEVILLE, Ala. — Authorities on Monday released the names of the four people who were killed in a shooting at a teen’s birthday party in a small eastern Alabama town Saturday night, a case in which there is no publicly identified suspect or motive.
The shooting, which began about 10:30 p.m. Saturday in downtown Dadeville, injured 32 people, authorities said Monday evening — four more than reported over the weekend. Several were in critical condition. The party was held at Mahogany Masterpiece, a dance studio, said Keenan Cooper, who was hired to DJ that night. The night was uneventful, until the birthday girl’s mother learned that someone in attendance had a gun. She asked them to leave, but no one did. About an hour later, Cooper said he dropped to the ground to take cover amid five minutes of “nonstop shots.”
According to Mike Knox, the Tallapoosa County coroner, the dead were Marsiah “Siah” Emmanuel Collins, 19; Philstavious Dowdell, 18; Corbin Dahmontrey Holston, 23; and Shaunkivia “Keke” Nicole Smith, 17.
“The indication is that they all died of gunshot wounds,” Knox said. “But the forensic department is still conducting autopsies to determine the exact cause of death.”
Authorities have been tight-lipped about the shooting, which rocked the town of 3,000 people in Tallapoosa County, roughly 50 miles northeast of Montgomery. Authorities have not yet identified the shooter or a motive and have asked for tips.
Sgt. Jeremy Burkett of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, which is leading the investigation into the shooting, said Sunday that there was no risk to the public. ALEA officials said Monday evening that investigators recovered “numerous shell casings used in handguns” and that the agency is “still processing all of the evidence, in conjunction with completing interviews, in an effort to solidify a motive and potential suspects.”
Dadeville mourned in the days after the shooting, with hundreds of community members gathering Sunday at the First Baptist Church to pray for the dead and injured.
One of the students who had died, Dowdell, planned to attend Jacksonville State University on a football scholarship. He was attending his sister’s birthday party when the shooting began, said Mardracus Russell, a coach of the high school track team.
“We worked together on the process for scholarships at Jacksonville State,” Russell said. “As a teacher you get so attached and build relationships with these students. For something to happen like this, it’s like someone stabbed me.”
Dowdell was on the track team, and his “main thing was running the 100 and 200 meter,” said Russell, who added that Dowdell holds the state title for both races.
Dowdell was “not only a great athlete but a great student,” Russell said. “He always had a smile on his face; he’s truly uplifting.”
Russell knew more than one student who was killed at the birthday party. Smith, the daughter of Russell’s cousin, was “getting ready to graduate in a little over a month.” Dowdell was also a graduating senior, according to AL.com.
One of Smith’s softball coaches, Jordan McGuire, described her as a “lightning-quick outfielder who played in her sophomore and junior years,” and “an aggressive setter on the volleyball team who loved to win.”
McGuire told The Post that like many others in Dadeville, her athletes are rocked by the deaths of their teammates and friends.
Collins was an aspiring musician about to start at Louisiana State University in the fall, his father told Al.com.
Martin Collins told the news site that his son was “a great big brother to his sisters.”
“He was a funny, charismatic kid who loved to light up a room.”
Ben Hayes, who serves as the chaplain for the Dadeville Police Department and for the local high school football team, said the community is tightly linked and trying to process the killings.
“Everybody is connected to everybody [in Dadeville],” Hayes said Sunday. “We will never be the same again.”
That communal spirit had prompted Holston — a “caring and considerate” man — to go to the dance hall to protect his family, according to his mother.
“Corbin was selfless when it came to his family and friends and always tried to be a protector,’’ Janett Heard, told AL.com. “That’s just the type of person he was.”
Hayes, the chaplain, told The Washington Post that he had visited Lake Martin Community Hospital shortly after the shooting.
On Saturday night, the community hospital — a four-minute drive from downtown Dadeville — received 15 patients with gunshot wounds, said Heidi Smith, the marketing director of Ivy Creek Healthcare, which runs the hospital.
Six of those people stayed at Lake Martin for treatment, and nine were sent away to four other hospitals in the area, Smith said at a Monday morning news conference. Most of the wounded sent elsewhere were in critical condition.
Smith said that all of Dadeville is reeling from the shooting and that the medical community was providing counseling to children in the city, the families of those affected and the hospital staff on duty Saturday night.
“Treating one gunshot wound is traumatic, and when you have 15 and they are all children, it’s a lot,” she said. “Our job now is to take care of the community and our staff.”
President Biden called for a legislative response to gun violence that he said was “outrageous and unacceptable.”
Dadeville’s killings follow two recent high-profile attacks in the South. Earlier in the week, a man killed five people at the Louisville bank where he worked before dying in a shootout with police. In late March, a person fatally shot three children and three staff members at a Nashville school before being killed by police.
Through Sunday, 163 mass shootings had occurred this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA). The advocacy group, which defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are killed or injured, says 225 people have died and 642 have been injured. The GVA does not include shooters in its mass-shooting tallies.
Javaid reported from Washington, and Reiley from Tampa. Anumita Kaur and Paulina Villegas in Washington contributed to this report.