5 arrested, charged in deadly Alabama Sweet 16 party shooting
A sixth person has been arrested in connection with the Saturday night mass killing at a dance studio in Dadeville, Ala., that left four people dead and at least 32 injured, state law enforcement said Wednesday morning.
A 17-year-old and a 16-year-old were arrested Tuesday night. Wilson LaMar Hill Jr., 20, was arrested Wednesday afternoon. And on Thursday Johnny Letron Brown, 20, Willie George Brown Jr., 19, and a 15-year old were arrested. All six were charged with four counts of reckless murder, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. The Post generally does not name juveniles charged with crimes.
Two older teenage suspects are brothers, law enforcement officials said. They did not say whether they knew others at the dance studio, which was hosting a birthday party.
Sgt. Jeremy Burkett, of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, urged witnesses to come forward and “tell the truth about what happened that night.”
Advertisement
“When you pull out a gun and start shooting people, we will put you in jail. We are concerned about the families of the victims,” Burkett said. “We are tired of telling parents that their kids are not going to be coming home.”
With dozens of people injured, there could be more charges filed, Segrest said.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg. This is a very complex case,” he said. “There were dozens of victims. Every victim will have justice, not just the deceased.”
Authorities, who have been tight-lipped since the shooting, did not release any information about a potential motive for the rampage that rocked the town of 3,000 people in Tallapoosa County, roughly 50 miles northeast of Montgomery.
Segrest acknowledged frustration among the community about the lack of information, saying he can’t reveal much because the investigation is ongoing.
Advertisement
The first arrest announcement Wednesday came four days after the small town in Alabama became the latest American community to reckon with gun violence when gunfire broke out Saturday night right after 10:30 at a birthday party, according to witnesses.
Share this articleShare“One of the injured had her sweet 16 birthday party that night,” Segrest said. “Her uncut cake never got lit, and her brother is one of the victims.”
Segrest also noted that the party was not only attended by Dadeville residents.
“Kids from other towns and cities came to the party,” he said. “It’s a traumatic thing for them.”
The party for a 16-year-old girl had been uneventful until the girl’s mother told the crowd of several dozen people that she had learned somebody there had a gun, said Keenan Cooper, who was hired to DJ the party at the Mahogany Masterpiece dance studio in downtown Dadeville. The mother asked them to leave, Cooper added, but no one did.
Advertisement
An hour later, he dropped to the ground to take cover amid five minutes of “nonstop shots,” Cooper said.
According to Tallapoosa County coroner Mike Knox, the dead were Marsiah “Siah” Emmanuel Collins, 19; Philstavious Dowdell, 18; Corbin Dahmontrey Holston, 23; and Shaunkivia “Keke” Nicole Smith, 17.
Dowdell planned to attend Jacksonville State University on a football scholarship. He was attending his sister’s birthday party when the shooting began, said Mardracus Russell, a coach of the high school track team.
The weekend’s gun violence in Dadeville is the latest among a staggering number of mass killings this year that have ravaged the nation. Less than four months into 2023, there have been 163 mass shootings that have killed 228 people and injured 638, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. The group defines mass shootings as those in which four or more people, not including the shooter, are injured or killed.
The tragedy in Dadeville was unprecedented, according to residents and authorities. However, data shows gun violence is pervasive across the state. Alabama has the fifth-highest rate of gun violence in the United States, according to EveryStat, a site that collects and analyzes data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kyle Rempfer and Ben Brasch contributed to this report.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLuiwMiopWhqYGeAcHyTaGhyZ5SWsabCyKWjnmWjnbywwMinnmarpai9pq%2FTrGSaqqKawLWxw2arnp2elrSmvtJo