By Brandon Drenon
Mourners attend a vigil at the First Baptist Church of Dadeville in Alabama following a mass shooting at the Mahogany Masterpiece dance studio in the city, which left four people dead and 28 injured. Photo: Megan Varner / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP
Two teenage boys have been charged with murder after the shooting at a 16th birthday party in Alabama that killed four and injured 32 over the weekend.
Brothers Ty Reik McCullough, 17, and Travis McCullough, 16, were arrested on Tuesday night, police said.
Authorities said the suspects were each being charged with four counts of reckless murder and that more charges are expected.
A prosecutor said the suspects would be charged as adults.
At a press conference on Wednesday, officials told reporters that these were the very beginning stages of the investigation into the shooting on Saturday in Dadeville and offered very few details. No information was given about a motive or the type of firearm used.
Police said that among the 32 people injured, four were still in the hospital and four remained in critical condition.
"We are going to make sure everyone of those victims has justice and not just the deceased," Sergeant Jeremy Burkett of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) said.
The agency added: "These individuals have been charged after a complex and thorough investigation was conducted with assistance from a multitude of law enforcement agencies."
Until Wednesday, police had offered few details since the shooting on any suspects in the case.
District Attorney Mike Segrest acknowledged this fact, saying, "I know that there has been some frustration among our community and among media about a lack of information that has been provided up to this point."
The deceased victims have been identified as Marsiah Collins, 19; Phil Dowdell, 18; Corbin Holston, 23; and Shaunkivia Smith, 17.
Dowdell died trying to save his sister Alexis, his family has said. He was a star athlete on his high school's American football team and had been due to graduate to go to Jacksonville State University on a sports scholarship.
One of his friends and school football team-mate told the BBC: "Phil to me was an amazing friend. God's got an angel."
A mourner holds a candle at a vigil for those killed and injured in the shooting at a 16th birthday party in Dadeville, Alabama. Photo: Megan Varner / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP
There were about 50 people at the party, which was held at a local dance studio.
Dadeville, a town of roughly 3,000 residents, is about 100 kilometres northeast of the state capital of Montgomery.
Officials said the two suspects are from Tuskegee, Alabama which is about a 40 minute drive from Dadeville.
Burkett urged those who were at the party at the dance studio to contact authorities if they had not already done so.
"We need you to come forward for these families, for these victims," he said.
Investigators are seen outside the crime scene in Dadeville, Alabama. Authorities have asked anyone who was at the party and who has not yet contacted them to do so as soon as possible. Photo: Megan Varner / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP
The weekend attack took the US to a grim milestone of more than 160 mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines such events as ones in which four or more people are shot.
- BBC