A bullet hole is visible in the glass transom over the door at the Mahogany Masterpiece dance studio in Dadeville, Ala., on Sunday, April 16, 2023. Several people were killed and multiple others injured in a shooting at a birthday party at the dance studio the previous night. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)

From the AP

Investigators on Thursday charged a sixth person with reckless murder in connection with a deadly shooting at a Sweet 16 birthday party, saying in court documents they believe gunmen shot into the crowd during the celebration.

Investigators said in court documents filed Thursday that they believe five of those charged were present at the party on April 15 and “discharged firearms into the crowd,” resulting in the deaths of four people.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency on Thursday night announced the arrest of a 15-year-old juvenile from Tuskegee, Alabama, the sixth person charged in the case, but court records were not released because of the person’s age.

All six face reckless murder charges in connection with the fatal shooting, the state agency said.

The Sweet 16 birthday, at a dance studio just off the town square, was in full swing when gunfire erupted. Investigators have not discussed a motive or what they believe led to the shooting.

The shooting killed four young people, ranging in age from 17 to 23, and shocked the small east Alabama city of Dadeville. Besides the four slain, 32 others were injured, four of them critically.

Tyreese “Ty Reik” McCullough, 17, and Travis McCullough, 16, both of Tuskegee, were arrested Tuesday. Wilson LaMar Hill Jr., 20, of Auburn, Alabama, was arrested Wednesday. Johnny Letron Brown, 20, of Tuskegee and Willie George Brown Jr., 19, of Auburn, were arrested Thursday. All are charged with four counts of reckless murder, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said.

The district attorney said the teens will be tried as adults as required by Alabama law when anyone 16 or older is charged with murder.

All of the suspects are being held in the Tallapoosa County Jail with no bond with the exception of the 15-year-old, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said.

The birthday girl’s brother, 18-year-old Philstavious “Phil” Dowdell of Camp Hill, Alabama, died as his sister knelt beside him begging him to keep breathing. He and another fatal victim, 17-year-old Shaunkivia Nicole “KeKe” Smith of Dadeville, were high school seniors. Also slain were Marsiah Emmanuel “Siah” Collins, 19, of Opelika, Alabama, and Corbin Dahmontrey Holston, 23, of Dadeville.

 

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77 COMMENTS

  1. Golly they sure spend a lot of time mentioning a likely gang shooting. Doesn’t CHIRAQ count anymore?!?

  2. Still no motive published. Just a guess, but it sounds like someone felt they was “Dissed” or insulted by not being on the guest list. No matter the reasoning, the perps should be given a fair trial and a fair hanging. There is no excuse for this kind of thing.

    • Perhaps, but it appears that this involved more than only one angry “someone”, if a total of six arrests have now been made, and charges of murder applied.

      Alabama. Many young people present. Several aggressors approaching and opening fire and sending so many bullets flying a total of almost 40 people were hit. I leave it to the reader to fill in the blanks.

      • Add in the police statement that they didn’t feel there was a danger to the public even before they’d made the first arrests. If that doesn’t indicate a targeted attack, nothing does.

      • Haz, what makes this a bit unique is Dadeville is a small community outside the usual violent crime districts of the larger cities. These kinds of shootings are usually confined to parts of larger metropolitan areas.
        In general kids out here, outside of the cities, no matter the demographic are usually better behaved. Just as they are in most semi rural, or rural areas around the country.
        What bothers me most about this is the gansta’ thug mentality seems to be spreading out from the cities into the smaller communities where it was never an issue.

        • Obviously the perps were not educated in democRat Gun Free Zone schools about laws, firearms, freedom, morality, respect, etc. Now the perps crying for their mamas will have to sit in a jailhouse with their shirttails dipped in sht for a very long time.

          To imply such atrocities never happens with whites one has to be a bigot with their head residing in their behind.

        • “What bothers me most about this is the gansta’ thug mentality seems to be spreading out from the cities into the smaller communities where it was never an issue.”

          In the mid 1970s, I lived in a sleepy town in southwest Oklahoma called Altus. The main driver of the economy was the USAF base my dad was stationed at, at the time.

          About 15 years ago, I met someone online who happened to mention he was stationed there in the late 1970s, a handful of years after I had moved on. We reminisced a bit about southwest Oklahoma, and he mentioned he went back there to visit in the early 2000s, as his wife had a friend who had lived there all her life. I made a casual remark that I’d like to visit there sometime to see what changed.

          (Come to think of it, it just *might* have been Mr. Sam I Am, as that person was also stationed there.)

          He strongly cautioned me not to go back. Methamphetamine now has a headlock on the place and the cartel gangs from south of the border now run the rural areas there.

          Drugs and a music culture glorifying ‘fuck the police’ is not a healthy combination for larger cities or rural areas… 🙁

        • “seems to be spreading out from the cities into the smaller communities where it was never an issue.”

          Everyone is connected now thanks to social media. Lots of destructive behaviors have been spreading like wildfire.

    • oldmaninAL,

      There is serious sickness of the soul in many people in our nation’s urban Hellscapes–and that sickness of the soul is spreading out beyond those urban Hellscapes.

      That sickness of the soul is so awful and evil that there is a very good chance that this group of young men simply shot into the party for “thrills”. Of course there could always be a racial element as well: the victims that this article mentioned sounded like they had Greek names and would therefore be “white” people–and the names of the accused are common names among “black” people. So, this attack could have been as simple as a bunch of “black” guys decided it would be “thrilling” to shoot into a crowd of “white” people and it would be “justified” to boot for perceived injustices of “racial inequality”.

      • the first things i thought of when i read philstavious, shaunkivia, marsiah and corbin dahmontrey were the island of kos, avgo lemono and roditis.

      • “The birthday girl’s brother, 18-year-old Philstavious “Phil” Dowdell of Camp Hill, Alabama, died as his sister knelt beside him begging him to keep breathing. He and another fatal victim, 17-year-old Shaunkivia Nicole “KeKe” Smith of Dadeville, were high school seniors. Also slain were Marsiah Emmanuel “Siah” Collins, 19, of Opelika, Alabama, and Corbin Dahmontrey Holston, 23, of Dadeville.”

        Perhaps I am not au curant with popular Greek names these days but the list of names of folks who got shot to me sounds like a roll call of students at South Central High in Los Angeles.

      • And, yet, STATISTICALLY he is not incorrect. Sometimes, it appears, reality can be racist. Or a more rational analysis might be, what is going on in the “gang culture” that causes young African-American males to commit violent crimes at rates several times greater than their white/asian counterparts?

        I agree his phrasing of the issue was arguably racist; his conclusion is simply an observation of an empirical fact.

        • Well said Lamp. He’s correct that there’s a problem within that Demographic group, but how he said it paints the entire group as the problem. I know many Law Abiding Gun Owning Black’s that recognize they’ve got a Gangst Thug problem. They also know that the answer is within the group. Black Leaders need to step up to the plate, and instead of blaming the problems on others, accept their own responsibility for allowing Gangsta culture far too many liberties.

        • “Clop-clop-clop *Bang!*, Clop-clop-clop *Bang!*…

          One Amish drive-by…

  4. And yet, what we’ve heard from the general MSM has been crickets.
    Meanwhile, an elderly confused white man injures one black youth and it’s headlines for days.

    • “what we’ve heard from the general MSM has been crickets“

      Wait a minute, this article references the Associated Press story from just yesterday, right?

      “From the AP

      Investigators on Thursday charged a sixth person… “

      So you don’t consider the associated press to be part of the main stream media?
      Interesting…

      • minor49iq…Perhaps you have insider info about the motive behind the Louisville perp? Being fired from his job was false and ruled out so the field is open for a motive. And reading excerpts from him that were noted on TTAG following the tragedy leads me to believe his impromptu gun purchase and actions were possibly to give Gun Control a push following Nashville according to the timelines of both events…Your response is…

      • One mention, wow. That there is real coverage. We’ve had daily news articles about the elderly man.
        No, AP is just a has been rag of an institution, even though their “coverage” of news is generally just biased tripe.

        • Why the “generally” qualifier, Ghost? I think we can say, with some certainty, that ALL of their reporting is biased tripe.

      • “Front page” shouting from the rooftops and constant pundit coverage vs. “tenth page” reporting and sweeping under the rug. What determines the difference? Does it fit the narrative, yes or no?

  5. 5 shooters, all apparently using handguns they were too young to buy. Clearly shows a need for more gun control laws regulating legal sales.

    • Don’t always agree with you, but . . . spot on. It is true in literally EVERY mass shooting event, the perpetrator(s) committed multiple criminal violations. Hello! Look up the definition of ‘criminal’, idiots. Now, ‘splain to me why ONE MORE law is going to change their behavior.

      While, at the same time, the Leftist/fascists are RELYING on the generally law-abiding nature of the conservative/right/libertarian part of the country to comply, since . . . they weren’t the ones causing the problem, in the first place. Makes sense . . . if you’re a Leftist/fascist.

      • Yep – The more free they are to do it, the more “they” (Actual criminals) will succeed doing these. And I noticed the article at this site a few days ago where they talked about the statistics-altering that is going on to reinforce the ‘gun control’ narrative. It may be connected to google censorship too – a google search reveals that there are a whole bunch of “scholarly” articles all in favor of gun control. This battle is uphill.

  6. Our society has lost its moral bearings.

    Many children and teenagers today are growing up with the following conditions:

    * lack of fathers in the home,
    * lack of a religion or other moral foundation,
    * teaching of morals and removal of God in schools,
    * participation in scouting or other community-based organizations,
    * too much “worship” of “Hollywood” and tech, especially Social Media tech,
    * preoccupation with gender,
    * the country’s leadership is Hell-bent on separating us based on political ideology,
    * the extremely fast-growing movements of Communism and Marxism,
    * lack of leaders who profess the good things that bring us together, and who emphasize good over evil,
    * the purposeful “non-punishment” of those who commit violent crimes against innocent people,
    * outright evil in many forms: unbridled and unrestrained abuse of minors, including transgender surgeries, teaching white children that they are oppressors by birth, teaching black children that they are systematically oppressed and cannot change that, transgender manifestos to “kill Christians”, acceptance of bullying those who “step away from” the “prevailing “GROUP THINK”, and just many other evils.

    Of course, this is just a small list, but enough to highlight how complex things have become in society. The elite Left Wing is proposing to effectively eliminate the great working class and instead support those things that further enrich the wealthy elite as opposed to those things that benefit mankind as a whole.

    For example, some hospitals are now advertising surgical services for minors that will permanently remove sex organs, yet the child need not involve their parents, priest, or other adult mentor; this is just outright evil.

    Another example is the push for unrestrained abortion, even well past the point of viability.

    Unless the good people of the world put their feet down, put their hand up without fear, then we will continue to slide into the abyss.

    • Think you covered it well. Remove God from our society and the end results are a bunch of demon inspired possed maniacs running around commiting nothing but evil.

    • Also IF you ignore corporate fascism, it tends to recede and go away, because they rely on you funding them directly. (ie boycott). IF you ignore communist/marxist/woke/ cultures, they will come and strike you in the back, because they thrive in a vacuum, without real and comprehensive (usually classic) education. They create and proliferate their own idiotic nonsense, whereas corporate fascism requires fealty. Correct me if I’m wrong please.

    • I would agree with your list, except BSA is now a significantly “woke” organization. The Boy Scouts you and I belonged to in our youth is a far cry from BSA today which, by the way, is now co-ed and accepting of folks who are confused about their sexual orientation God and country no longer heard around the campfire.

    • Just like the riots in Chitcago last weekend. We were constantly told it was “youths,” with nary a mention that it was pretty much 100% blacks.

      • Ghost,

        OK, now I’ve got to call “racist bullshit” on you. Look at the video footage of MOST of the 2020 riots. A sea of white faces, mostly spoiled, entitled, upper-middle-class infants.

        Yes, young African-American men commit a disproportionate amount of violent crime. Let’s look for the reasons (government dependency and ‘gang culture’), and address those. Let’s not demonize a race because some members are doing bad shit.

        Oh, and let’s not forget that “race” is a bullshit concept. There are species; there are no “races”. I am whiter than a Wal-Mart turkey, and I am STILL more “Native American” than Elizabeth Warren (1/16th Cherokee, to her 1/1024 “indigenous North/South American”) – but I don’t even try to claim I’m “Native American” – I’m not. Your “race” means exactly diddly-squat; your character means everything. I’d one million times rather have a black friend than a white scumbag as a friend.

        • the recent wildings in chicago is what he referred to. they are almost completely one sided demographically.
          they are entirely unrelated to the funded, politically motivated marches/ violence/ destruction.
          as next year is an election one, count on them to return.

  8. This was a gang of young boys that had beef with one of the boys from Opelika, at the party (dead)…A gun was pulled inside the party on the suspects…The suspects were forced to leave…They returned in stronger numbers with their owns guns….Its is believed shots were coming from inside the party, too….It was a one sided gun fight gone bad…(Yes, I have more inside information in this case, than you think)….That is why they are keeping the details quite, because politics reared its ugly head in this…The hidden details in this case is why the suspects were not charged with capital murder..

    • I’d sure like to hear this come out into the media to get the light of day. Instead of being touted as “naive, ignorant children somehow getting hold of guns and accidently killing someone”.

      Yes – gangs have been migrating out of the cities and into rural areas for quite some time. Started when “new markets” for drugs were found with rural teens creating a demand for drugs and the gangs going “where the business was”. My niece was involved in this for a short time and, thank God, got out when her boyfriend cheated on her. But she told us an incredible story about what really goes on under-the-table in very rural areas.

      • Been seeing Bloods v Crips graffiti since about 73.

        Highly rural, and almost as far from LA/NYC as you can get and still be stateside.

        • The move to the ‘Burbs and Rural communities really made headway in the late 70s/early 80s. You’re correct,, the Gangsta culture began expanding in the early 70s from a strictly inner city problem.
          When we ceased using/employing Chain Gangs, Gangsta quickly grew and filled the vacuum. it gave them too much time to scheme and plot.

    • “This was a gang of young boys that had beef with one of the boys from Opelika, at the party (dead)…”

      Interesting that the police consider an active armed juvenile gang “to no longer be a threat to the community”.

      “The hidden details in this case is why the suspects were not charged with capital murder…”

      Those must be some details. Children can now be judge, jury, and executioner in Alabama? 🙁

      • IT was an uneven gunfight…Reckless murder means that most people were killed as result of crossfire and not likely targeted…It should have been capital murder…But they are saying that the shooters were just recklessly firing back in retaliation to a threat or gunfire…Blame the DA…

    • Reckless homicide is a form of involuntary manslaughter in which someone dies as a direct consequence of reckless behavior on the part of someone else.

    • Alabama law: reckless murder is defined as a murder “under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life, he/she recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to a person other than himself/herself, and thereby causes the death of another person.”

      In short, reckless murder is someone being fully aware of his or her act, knowing it will cause harm or death, and acting anyway. AKA elsewhere and broadly as ‘Reckless homicide’

      • .40 cal,

        “In short, reckless murder is someone being fully aware of his or her act, knowing it will cause harm or death, and acting anyway. AKA elsewhere and broadly as ‘Reckless homicide’”

        Not QUITE, but pretty close. If you KNOW it will cause harm or death, it is no longer reckless, it is deemed intentional – if you KNOW what the outcome of your actions will be, and you take them anyway, those are intentional actions. It is all about “mens rea”. If you intend your actions, that is level one. If you are stupidly uncaring about the likely results or your action, that is stage two. If your are just stupid, and do something a rational person would consider unreasonably risky, that is stage three. Most manslaughter definitions are aimed at stage two.

        I have mixed feelings about criminalizing stupid behavior. As much as I despise his dishonest, Leni Reifenstahl-esque comments, and I think they are intentional, I would not criminalize MajorLiar’s tweets. Mock them, sure. I used to try to refute them, but it became clear MajorLiar didn’t WANT an honest discussion, he just wanted to spout his narrative, and the convinced himself he was smart enough to sell that bullshit.

        While part of me thinks there should be a level of stupidity that is criminal, Darwin has already implemented that. And often it carries capital punishment as a remedy. “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes” is actually a thing (c.f., “Florida man”). Because my God tells that “Vengeance is mine”, I don’t feel the need to punish stupid people. I also feel free to mock, deride, insult, and belittle them. I am confident in God and Darwin delivering final judgement, I have no problem with delivering a little ‘real world’ retribution to stupid people. Pretty much the only reason I respond to MajorLiar or dacian posts.

        • “I would not criminalize MajorLiar’s tweets.”

          Once again you show your utter disdain for the United States Constitution’s protections for free speech.

          Besides, you are delusional, I have never issued a ‘tweet’, I don’t have a Twitter account.

  11. And what does everyone have in common?
    Probably not NRA members or legal gun owners.
    Wonder why it is not plastered all over main stream news.

    • what else do they have in common? not one is a republican, a conservative, an independent or a libertarian.

  12. Why do all of these people have such stupid-sounding names?
    They sound like a bunch of marvel characters.

  13. Note that all of those arrested are from Tuskegee or Auburn. None from Dadeville. Suggests the Dadeville kids were the victims of party crashers. The shooting may have started when the outsiders were ordered to leave.

      • “She shouldn’t have worn that tight skirt!”

        Having a party on prom night is a hallowed tradition. It is USUALLY “open” (less so, these days). Doesn’t mean a party-crasher, particularly one with evil intent, is welcome.

    • “Suggests the Dadeville kids were the victims of party crashers.”

      Sounds like it.

      Since the killers came from out-of-town for a targeted ‘hit’ and immediately left, the Sheriff didn’t “Consider them a threat to (meaning, his) community… 🙁

      • “Sheriff didn’t “Consider them a threat to (meaning, his) community… 🙁”

        Nothing to see here! They left! Go about your business.

        Until the bastards return.

  15. Why is anyone surprised by any of this?? It’s just what they do: shoot each other. They’ve been doing it for decades, relentlessly, not just here, but on their home continent. I find it hilarious when everyone clutches their pearls in surprise when blacks get together and kill each other.

  16. its cultural
    its cultural
    its cultural
    the rest of us
    shouldnt be forced
    to relinquish any of our rights
    or any of our property
    just because a significantly large subset
    of 13-15 percent of the population
    were never taught
    or have long forgotten how
    to act like normal decent human beings

  17. NOT THE GUN IT’S THE HUMAN LOW CLASS TRASH PEOPLE , IF WANT CALL TRASH ANIMALS PEOPLE .. UUUUH CAN’T EXECUTE .. LOCKUP THROW AWAY THA KEY .GANG OR NO GANG .
    YEP IF HAVE PARENTS , IF CAN CALL THEM PARENTS … I HAD A SON GOT INTO GANG , THREE FRGN YEARS TO GET HIM OUT AND INTO US MARINES . GOT OUT STAYED AWAY FROM GANGS . ONE THING LEARNED EVEN IF KICK THEM OUT OF HOUSE , GO SUPPORT YOUR SELF , STILL GANGS CAN GET TO THEM , ALWAYS STAY IN KIDS LIFE , SUPPORT BEST CAN WITH REASONALBLE DEMANDS. HAVE TO EARN IT .

  18. Butthurt because didn’t get an invite. How many times have we seen this very example in large cities since 2019? Wanna bet every one of the perps are well known to both the victims and police?

  21. I assume they passed the background checks that prevents crooks and other idiots from buying guns?
    You mean they broke the law??!!

  22. Don’t release the shooters names! That’s what this kind of genetic backfire seek – fame. Throw them away and let them rot.

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