GUNS FOR HIRE

Mass Shooting Started Out as Paid Hit Job, Police Say

Nearly two dozen people were shot on Saturday as gunmen fired off shots at a group of people in one of the state’s largest cities.

A mass shooting in Birmingham, Alabama, that left four people dead and more than a dozen people injured was the result of a hit job, police told WBRC. The Saturday night shooting involved multiple suspects pulling up to a group of people on the city’s Magnolia Avenue and firing dozens of shots, hitting 21 people and killing three. More than 100 shell casings were found at the scene, according to WBRC. Police said 12 people were taken to a local hospital, where another victim died. Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond said on Sunday police believed the shooters were paid to kill one of the people who died, though according to WBRC, they don’t know which victim was the target. “I will say this, we, all of us as a community, owe it to the victims to do everything we can to take these shooters killers off our streets,” Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said.