Police say there was a shooting in east Alabama on Saturday night at a dance studio where a teen's birthday party was going on. Four people were killed and several others were hurt.
Local news station WRBL said that the shooting happened at a 16th birthday party in Dadeville, about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Montgomery, at about 10:30 p.m. on Saturday night.
Philstavious "Phil" Dowdell, a high school senior in Dadeville who had just signed with Jacksonville State University, was at his sister Alexis's party when he was shot and killed.
"As a child, he was very, very humble. Never got into trouble with anyone. "He always had a smile on his face," Allen told the newspaper, calling it "a million-dollar smile."
The shooting hurt several people, including Dowdell's mother. "Everybody's grieving," Allen said.
A 2020 study by Everytown, a group that works to make guns safer and stop gun violence, says that Alabama has the third highest rate of gun deaths in the US.