Two more youths arrested for Alabama ‘Sweet 16’ party shooting
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Law enforcement officers walk through the crime scene, a day after a shooting at a teenager's birthday party in a dance studio, in Dadeville, Alabama.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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Montgomery – Authorities in Alabama on Thursday said they had made two more arrests in connection with last week’s shooting at a “Sweet 16“ birthday party
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said Willie George Brown Jr, 19, of Auburn, and Johnny Letron Brown, 20, of Tuskegee, were arrested on Thursday, bringing the number of suspects arrested to five.
It added that everyone arrested has been charged with four counts of “reckless murder”. All five suspects are being held in the Tallapoosa County jail with no bond. Online court records did not indicate if they had legal representation.
The other three suspects
The shooting last Saturday took place at the Mahogany Masterpiece Dance Studio in Dadeville, a community of 3,200 people about 80km north-east of Montgomery.
Three teenagers and a 23-year-old man were killed in the shooting.
The shooting followed separate outbreaks of deadly gun violence in Tennessee and Kentucky that prompted local leaders to call for tighter gun control measures.
Mass shootings have become common in the United States, with at least 165 so far in 2023, the most at this point in the year since at least 2016, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The non-profit group defines a mass shooting as any in which four or more people are wounded or killed, not including the shooter. REUTERS
