Sixth arrest made in Alabama birthday shooting
- A shooting at a birthday party in Alabama left 4 dead, 32 hurt
- Police made a sixth arrest in the shooting Thursday
- Those charged in the shooting will be tried as adults
A makeshift memorial is created at the scene of the fatal shooting at a dance studio in Dadeville, Ala., Wednesday April 19, 2023. Two teenagers have been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the shooting that killed four young people at a Sweet Sixteen birthday party, investigators announced Wednesday. (Mickey Welsh/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP)
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(NewsNation) — Investigators made a sixth arrest Thursday in connection to a shooting at a sweet sixteen birthday party that left four people dead over the weekend in Dadeville, Alabama.
Six people each face four counts of reckless murder charges linked to the shooting.
Johnny Letron Brown, 20, of Tuskegee, and Willie George Brown Jr., 19, of Auburn, were taken into custody Thursday. Tyrese “Ty Reik” McCullough, 17, of Tuskegee, and Travis McCullough, 16 of Tuskegee, were arrested Tuesday. Wilson LaMar Hill Jr., 20, of Auburn, was arrested Wednesday.
The sixth person is a 15-year-old from Tuskegee, Alabama, but court records were not released because of the person’s age.
The sweet sixteen party was in full swing Saturday at a dance studio near the town’s square when gunfire erupted. Four people, ranging in age from 17 to 23, died in the shooting. Another 32 were injured, four of them critically.
Philstavious “Phil” Dowdell, 18, of Camp Hill, the birthday girl’s brother, died while his sister begged him to keep breathing.
“There’s an uncut cake and unburned 16 candles that never got lit,” Mike Segrest, District Attorney for the Fifth Judicial Circuit of Alabama, said. “(Her) brother is one of the victims. At her sixteenth birthday party she knelt by her brother as he took his last breath. That’s what we’re dealing with here … The message that I want to send … don’t mess with our kids.”
Dowdell and another deceased victim, 17-year-old Shaunkivia Nicole “KeKe” Smith, of Dadeville, were high school seniors. Marsiah Emmanuel “Siah” Collins, 19, of Opelika, and Corbin Dahmontrey Holston, 23, of Dadeville, also died in the shooting.
According to the district attorney, those charged with the shooting deaths will be tried as adults, as required by Alabama law when anyone 16 or older is facing a murder charge.
All of the suspects are being held in the Tallapoosa County Jail with no bond with the exception of the 15-year-old, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said.
Additional charges are expected to be filed in the case.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
