Mass shooting kills 4 and wounds 18 in nightlife district in Birmingham, Alabama

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A mass shooting killed four people and wounded 18 others in a popular nightlife area in Birmingham, Alabama, with many of the victims caught in the crossfire, police said early Sunday. Authorities asked the public for tips as they searched for the shooters.

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

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, Fitzgerald said.

A preliminary investigation showed that “multiple suspects fired upon a large group of people who were outside in a public area,” police said.

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

Injured people began showing up at hospitals, Fitzgerald said. By early Sunday, police had identified 18 other victims with injuries, some of them life-threatening.

Authorities believe the intended target was among the dead, Police Chief Scott Thurmond said at a news conference Sunday morning.

“The suspects pulled up in a vehicle, exited the vehicle, conducted a shooting, got back in the vehicle and fled the scene,” Thurmond said.

There were no immediate arrests. A large search for the shooters was underway, and Birmingham police reached out to federal law enforcement agencies for help with the investigation, officials told AL.com. Anyone with information was asked to contact authorities.

“Rest assured, we are going to do everything we possibly can to uncover, identify and hunt down whoever was responsible for preying on our people,” Fitzgerald said.

The Five Points South area contains entertainment venues, restaurants and bars and often is crowded on Saturday nights. ___

Associated Press writer Jonathan Matisse in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this report.