(Reuters) – Four people were killed and at least 20 more were injured in a shooting on Saturday night in the small town of Dadeville, Alabama, a local TV station reported on Sunday, citing investigators on the scene and a release from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency did not immediately respond to a request for information from Reuters.
The shooting occurred around 10:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, according to the agency release cited in the report by TV station WRBL.
The FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Fifth Circuit District Attorney’s Office had also responded to the scene and were assisting with the investigation, the release said.
There was no confirmation about what led to the shooting, and it was not known if any suspects had been taken into custody.
Local reports indicated that the shooting occurred at a dance studio during what seemed to be a teenager’s birthday party. WRBL broadcast images of crime scene tape around the Mahogany Masterpiece Dance Studio and surrounding buildings.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said in a Twitter post on Sunday morning that she was staying “closely updated” by law enforcement as details emerged.
“This morning, I grieve with the people of Dadeville and my fellow Alabamians,” she wrote in the post. “Violent crime has NO place in our state.”
The shooting occurred within weeks of two high-profile mass shootings in the nearby states of Tennessee and Kentucky, which prompted local leaders to call for tighter gun control measures last week.
A bank employee shot dead five colleagues and wounded nine other people at his workplace in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday. On March 27, three 9-year-olds and three staff members were killed at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, by a former student.
(Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
