MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Rival gunmen shot at each other in a crowded downtown nightlife district in Alabama's capital city Saturday night, killing two people and injuring 12 others in a chaotic street scene, police said.
The dead included a 43-year-old woman and a 17-year-old male, while five of the 14 people wounded were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, including a juvenile, police said.
No one had been arrested as of Sunday afternoon as police appealed to the public for information about the shooting and sorted through a complicated crime scene that involved multiple people firing at each other.
Police were still trying to piece together a motive for why the shooting started.
Police were called around 11:30 p.m. to what Montgomery Police Chief James Graboys described as a “mass shooting" that happened within earshot of officers on routine patrol in downtown Montgomery.
"This was two parties involved that were basically shooting at each other in the middle of a crowd," Graboys said.
The shooters, he said, “did not care about the people around them when they did it.”
Seven of the 14 victims were under 20, and the youngest was 16, Graboys said. At least two of the victims were armed and the shooting began when someone targeted one of the 14 victims, Graboys said.
The gunfire prompted multiple people to pull their own weapons and start firing, Graboys said.
Multiple weapons and shell cases were recovered from the scene, Graboys said.
Few other details were available.
It was a particularly busy weekend in Montgomery, with Alabama State University’s homecoming football game that day at Hornet Stadium, the Alabama National Fair ongoing at Garrett Coliseum and the Tuskegee University-Morehouse College rivalry football game having just ended at nearby Cramton Bowl.
Mayor Steven Reed told reporters there were police units within 50 feet (15 meters) when the shooting broke out and that the shooters “had no regard for human life.”
Investigators were reviewing surveillance video and interviewing witnesses and potential suspects.
“We will do everything we need to gather every bit of evidence to chase down whoever is involved,” Graboys said.