Montgomery police on Sunday were seeking suspects in the downtown shooting that killed two and injured 12 others late Saturday night.
The dead included a 43-year-old woman, identified by police as Shalanda WIlliams, and a 17-year-old identified as Jeremiah Morris, The Associated Press reported. Five of the wounded were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, including a juvenile, Montgomery police said.
No one had been arrested as of Sunday afternoon as police appealed to the public for information and sorted through a complicated crime scene that involved multiple people firing weapons in a crowd just after the Tuskegee University-Morehouse College rivalry football game ended in nearby Cramton Bowl.
“We’re gonna do whatever we can not only to arrest those responsible, we’re going to do whatever to arrest those connected in any way, who knew what may have happened, who knew what could take place,” Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed told a Sunday news conference. “We’re not going just to stop with those folks that were pulling the trigger last night.”
The shooters “had no regard for human life,” he said.
Police were called around 11:30 p.m. to what Montgomery Police Chief James Graboys described as a “mass shooting” at the intersection of Bibb and Commerce streets in the city’s downtown.
“This was two parties involved that were basically shooting at each other in the middle of a crowd,” Graboys told reporters near the scene.
It was a particularly busy weekend in Montgomery, with Alabama State University’s homecoming football game that day at Hornet Stadium, the Alabama National Fair ongoing at Garrett Coliseum and the Tuskegee University-Morehouse College rivalry football game having just ended at nearby Cramton Bowl.
Reed also pushed back Sunday on a statement from Alabama Attorney General Steven Marshall, who said Montgomery leaders won’t acknowledge that the city is in crisis. Reed said the statement showed a lack of awareness about efforts the city is making, al.com reported.
“If the attorney general ever wants to talk with me about what we’re doing, I’d be more than happy to sit with him, and I’ll go to him, tell him exactly what we’ve been doing,” Reed said.
“But I don’t need anybody lecturing me about crime.”
Marshall wasn’t the only Alabama leader commenting Sunday. U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who is the GOP frontrunner for governor in 2026, said on X Sunday he was deeply disturbed by the shooting.
“Crime has become too common in Montgomery, and this cannot continue,” Tuberville said. “It’s past time for city leadership to take responsibility and put an end to this.”