A shooting outside a popular hookah bar on Saturday night left four people dead and 17 injured, with the gunmen likely using illegal “switch” weapons that allow the gun to fire on full automatic, causing the highest death toll, authorities said.
Police said the gunmen found a lone target standing outside a nightclub and opened fire on a busy street lined with bars and restaurants popular with college students, just a few blocks from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
“They were in a vehicle, they exited the vehicle, shots were fired and they fled the scene in a vehicle,” Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurman told reporters.
The shooting lasted just a few minutes, but police found more than 100 empty shell casings at the scene and believe at least one of the guns was equipped with a “Glock switch,” allowing the handgun to fire in full automatic mode. According to WVTM-TV.
Machine guns and other fully automatic weapons are illegal in the United States, with a few exceptions that require onerous federal permits.
But these illegal conversations are rampant on Birmingham's streets, Mayor Randall Woodfin told reporters.
“There is a certain element in this community that is accustomed to running around with semi-automatic rifles, automatic rifles, convergent switches and any other type of firearm, whose only purpose is to cause harm to people,” Woodfin said.
The shooter's target was standing outside Hush Cigar and Hooker Lounge, an underground club that often has long lines to get in. It's a trendy spot in Birmingham's Five Points neighborhood that's popular with college students.
This is Birmingham's third homicide this year. In July, four people were killed and nine injured in a drive-by shooting at a coming-of-age birthday party. There have been 135 homicides in the city in 2023. According to AL.com:.
A few hours after the murder, another shooting occurred at a different nightclub, but police have said the two incidents are unrelated.
No arrests have been made so far and the search for the shooter continues.
