3 dead, 15 wounded in shooting at May Day event in Alabama

STOCKTON, Ala. (WALA/Gray News)- Three people were killed and 15 people were injured in a shooting at a May Day event in southern Alabama on Saturday.

The Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office said about 1,000 people were in attendance at the event in Stockton, Alabama, when an argument took place and at least one subject fired multiple shots into the crowd.

Andre Reid with the Baldwin County Investigation Division said the subjects involved were shooting at each other at the event.

Reid described the age range of the victims as mostly “younger people.”

Family have identified 24-year-old Christian Bradley and 37-year-old Chiquita Ewing as two of the three victims killed in the shooting.

Ewing was a mother of two boys and two girls.

Ewing’s cousin Martha Tims said the two attended the May Day event together.

She said everyone was having a great time until she heard multiple gunshots.

“All of sudden, I just kept hearing multiple gunshots, and everybody started running away. So I went to the first guy I seen laying down, and somebody was like somebody is behind him shot, too,” Tims said. “So I turned around and when I got over there and noticed it was my cousin. I just lost it, and she was just laying there and wasn’t responding or nothing. ... It was just total chaos out there.”

Tims said multiple people surrounded her cousin, trying to help her.

She said her cousin was a sweet, outgoing girl who always had a smile on her face.

“I’m trying to hold it together. I just want her to know that I was there by her side from the time that I knew it was her laying there. I held her hand until they told me that I had to move from beside her,” Tims said. “I wished this didn’t happen to her and the other victims. I didn’t know them like I knew her, and they didn’t deserve this. And I hope that everybody gets justice about what happened yesterday.”

He said investigators believe they have one suspect identified. There was at least one other shooter, Reid said, but investigators are not certain about that person’s involvement.

There has been no word yet whether arrests have been made. Investigators continue to try to track down some of the people believed to be involved.

A large crowd gathered at North Baldwin Infirmary in Bay Minette where some of the injured were taken. Reid said altercations also broke out there.

Authorities are asking people with any information about the incident to come forward.

Copyright 2024 WALA via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.