What we know about the Birmingham shooting that left 4 dead

Police in Birmingham, Alabama, are working to identify several people who opened fire in a bustling entertainment district Saturday night in what they called an “intentional shooting” that left four people dead and 17 injured — many of them bystanders who were hit in a hail of bullets.

Officers responded to reports of a shooting in Birmingham’s Five Points South after 11 p.m. and found three “unconscious” people who were later pronounced dead, according to Birmingham Police Officer Truman Fitzgerald. A fourth victim, a man, was pronounced dead at an area hospital, according to hospital staff.

In a news release Sunday, police identified three of the four people killed: Anitra Holloman, 21, Tahj Booker, 27, and Carlos McCain, 27. Authorities are still trying to identify the remaining male victim.

Seventeen other people were injured, according to Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond. At least four victims had life-threatening injuries, Fitzgerald said.

With no suspects in custody, the Birmingham Police Department is working with the FBI and other agencies to investigate and is urging anyone with information to come forward.

Here’s what we know about the mass shooting:

Targeted attack

Police believe the shooters wanted to kill one person and the other victims were caught in the gunfire.

“Someone was willing to pay money to kill this person,” Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond said Sunday.

Detectives are “still working to determine who was the target(s) of the shooting,” the police department said in a news release Sunday.

Thurmond added that more than 100 shell casings were found at the scene.

The city is committed to finding the shooters involved, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin told CNN. “Our goal and priority is literally the shooter or shooters who committed this heinous crime — to make sure we can get them off the street,” he said.

Five Points South is a vibrant neighborhood known for its restaurants, nightclubs, pubs and live music venues, located near the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus and downtown.

Like in a horror movie

Gabriel Eslami, 24, was standing in line outside the Hush shisha bar at about 11pm when gunfire broke out.

“Suddenly, there was just gunfire, gunfire, gunfire,” Eslami told CNN. “I started running for my life.” Less than three seconds later, Eslami said he couldn’t feel his leg and fell to the ground.

What he saw next, Eslami described as “horror.”

“Bodies are lying on the pavement, gun smoke in the air. There are shoes. People were running out of shoes, trying to escape. I saw people hiding behind cars, lying under cars,” he said.

Eslami was taken to hospital to be treated for a gunshot wound caused by a bullet that passed millimeters from an artery, he said doctors told him. “I don’t even know how to describe how I feel, knowing that I was lucky enough to get out of this with minimal injuries, and some people didn’t come home that night,” he said.

Dajon Singleton told CNN station WBMA he had been out all night and was planning to go to a bar when he heard “screaming sounds like mourning.”

“I knew right away that someone had lost a loved one,” he said.

When Singleton first arrived at the shooting scene, “there were people everywhere. People crying, screaming, I saw people running, so it was very crowded,” he told WBMA. Singleton also witnessed five or six people on stretchers.

Birmingham mayor says gun violence has reached ‘epidemic levels’

Woodfin said gun violence in Birmingham had reached “epidemic levels” and called for tougher laws to combat the problem.

“I want to work with you to solve this problem,” he said.

While crime rates are falling nationally, Birmingham saw an increase earlier this year.

FBI data shows the murder rate fell more than 26% nationally in the first three months of 2024 compared with the same period in 2023. Through March 4, Birmingham police had reported 17 murders this year, compared with 12 during the same period last year, a 41.7% increase.

In July, four people were killed and 10 injured in a shooting at a nightclub, CNN station WVRC reported. In February, four men were shot and killed outside a public library, CNN station WVTM reported.

Police believe Saturday’s shooters used illegal conversion devices, the department said in a news release Sunday. The devices can be used to bypass the weapon’s trigger mechanism, allowing it to function like a machine gun.

The conversion devices “can turn semiautomatic pistols and rifles into fully automatic weapons in less than 60 seconds,” according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The federal government considers these small devices illegal machine guns. Even without an accompanying firearm, they are illegal to possess.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Birmingham announced an initiative in July to tighten regulations on the devices, commonly known as “switches.”

“Glock switches are the number one public safety issue in our city and state,” Woodfin said in a Facebook post.

As Woodfin writes, although possession of these devices is illegal at the federal level, Alabama has no state law prohibiting them.

“We need our legislators to pass laws that will save lives and give local authorities the tools to arrest those who simply drive around with these weapons,” Woodfin wrote in a Facebook comment.

A bill to ban Glock switches in Alabama has been filed in the state House for the 2025 legislative session. A similar bill passed the state House during the 2024 legislative session but did not come up for a vote in the state Senate before the session ended.

Fitzgerald, the Birmingham police officer, said mass shootings “have more to do with culture than with crime,” adding: “Too many disputes are settled with bullets.”

“Justice will compensate you for your loss”

The mayor said he is focused on supporting the victims’ families.

“Right now, my thoughts are with the families who are experiencing a sudden, huge void in their lives. Innocent people who are currently under medical care and fighting for their lives,” Woodfin said in a statement posted on Facebook. “Children who are experiencing loss and grief far, far too soon.

“I hope the perpetrators of this crime know how deep this trauma is. There are families and children in immeasurable pain,” Woodfin added. “To anyone affected by yesterday’s violence, know that your city weeps with you,” he said.

“Justice will be served for your loss.”

Authorities have set up a QR code for people wishing to share information about the mass shooting.

CNN’s Zoe Sottile and Raja Razek contributed to this report.

To receive more CNN news and newsletters, sign up for CNN.com