3 charged with murder in shooting at teen’s birthday party in Alabama

DADEVILLE, Ala. —  Two teenagers and a 20-year-old man have been arrested and charged with reckless murder in connection with a shooting that killed four young people at a girl’s 16th birthday party in rural Alabama, investigators announced Wednesday.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency announced that Tyreese “Ty Reik” McCullough, 17, and Travis McCullough, 16, both of Tuskegee — along with Wilson LaMar Hill Jr., 20, of Auburn — had been charged with four counts of reckless murder. Tallapoosa County Dist. Atty. Mike Segrest said the two teens would be tried as adults, an automatic requirement for anyone 16 or older charged with murder in Alabama.

Sgt. Jeremy J. Burkett of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency declined at a news conference Wednesday to discuss how investigators believe the shooting unfolded.

“We can’t get into a motive right now, because that would be part of an ongoing investigation,” Burkett said. “We can’t share that.”

State law defines reckless murder as a death caused by someone acting with extreme indifference to human life and recklessly engaging in conduct that creates a grave risk of death to a person.

Saturday’s shooting at the birthday party shocked Dadeville, a sleepy town of 3,200 in east Alabama. Besides the four people killed, 32 others were injured, four of them critically. The party, thrown at a dance studio just off the town square, was in full swing when gunfire erupted.

World & Nation

High school football star among 4 slain in Alabama birthday party shooting

Four people were killed in a shooting at a dance studio in Dadeville, Ala., on Saturday night. The dead included a student celebrating his sister’s 16th birthday.

April 16, 2023

The birthday girl’s brother, 18-year-old Philstavious “Phil” Dowdell of Camp Hill, died in his sister’s arms. He and another victim, 17-year-old Shaunkivia Nicole “KeKe” Smith of Dadeville, were high school seniors. Families were left planning funerals instead of graduation celebrations.

Also killed were Marsiah Emmanuel “Siah” Collins, 19, of Opelika and Corbin Dahmontrey Holston, 23, of Dadeville.

“I just feel broken to know he is not with me,” Dowdell’s mother, LaTonya Allen, said. “But I do feel a little peace knowing they arrested somebody.” The arrests were announced the same day she met with the funeral home to discuss details for her son’s burial.

Allen said the three suspects were not invited to the party and her daughter “didn’t know them,” but they might have come with someone else as word of the party spread on social media.

Allen said she did not know how the shooting happened, but that she knew her son was dead once she saw him on the floor surrounded by blood. “My daughter was kneeling beside him. He was trying to say something to her but he couldn’t,” she said.

The shooting was the 16th mass killing of the year in the United States, according to the Associated Press’ standard of counting. A 17th took place in Maine on Tuesday. A total of 88 people have died in the killings in 2023.

A mass killing is defined as when four or more people are slain, other than the perpetrator, according to a database maintained by AP and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

Phil Dowdell was a star wide receiver with plans to play college football at Jacksonville State University. Smith, also college-bound in the fall, was a caring big sister, her family said, and an athlete who became a team manager after she was sidelined by a knee injury.

Collins was a 2020 Opelika High School graduate who planned to start college in the fall after taking a year off to try his hand at music. Holston was a 2018 Dadeville High graduate and former athlete at the school.

Flowers, balloons and two teddy bears with graduation caps and “Class of 2023” sashes were piled up Wednesday outside the dance studio. Black and gold balloons and ribbons, the colors of Dadeville High School, adorned mailboxes in the city.

Segrest said dozens of teens from nearby towns attended the party, spreading trauma across the region like a “wave.”

A family member of Smith was thankful for the arrests.

“It don’t make the hurt any easier. But we are relieved that [the suspects] are not out in the community,” Amy Jackson said in a phone interview Wednesday morning.

Investigators had released little information, frustrating some in the town.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency had said only that shell casings from handguns had been found, noting that there was no evidence a high-powered rifle was used. Burkett on Wednesday again appealed for information from attendees and the public.

Segrest said they will ask that the suspects be held without bond. It was not known Wednesday afternoon whether those arrested had attorneys who could comment for them.

In 2020, Alabama had the fifth-highest rate of gun deaths in the country, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Somebody’s got to start thinking about Mama, because I know I’m tired of it and everybody behind me is tired of it,” Burkett said. “We’re tired of going to the mothers and having to tell them that these kids are not coming home.”