Four dead in shooting in Alabama city’s nightlife district

A mass shooting left four people dead and 18 wounded in a popular neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama, with many victims caught in the crossfire, police said early Sunday. No one was immediately arrested and police asked the public for information.

The shooting happened shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday in the city’s Five Points South entertainment district, Officer Truman Fitzgerald said in an email.

Officers arriving at the scene found two men and a woman on a sidewalk with gunshot wounds, and they were pronounced dead at the scene. Another man with gunshot wounds was pronounced dead at the hospital, Fitzgerald said.

A preliminary investigation showed that “multiple suspects fired shots into a large group of people who were outside in a public space,” Fitzgerald said.

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

The injured began arriving at hospitals, Fitzgerald said. By Sunday morning, police had identified 18 more victims with injuries, some of them life-threatening.

No arrests were immediately made and investigators had not yet determined who was targeted, Fitzgerald said. Anyone with information was asked to contact authorities and a reward was possible, police said.

The Five Points South neighborhood is home to entertainment venues, restaurants and bars and is often crowded on Saturday nights.