One person was killed and eight others were wounded in a mass shooting just outside Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama, after the annual ‘Magic City Classic’ football game on Saturday night, police said. It was among several violent incidents nationwide on Halloween weekend.
Michael Pickett, chief of the Birmingham Police Department, said most spectators and families had left the stadium property after the game, but the shooting happened nearby, where vendors were set up along Graymont Avenue.
He said he was “very grateful that more people weren’t injured.”
The circumstances of the shooting were unclear.
Police spokesperson De’Rell Freeman said one person had been detained and transported to police headquarters for questioning, and “multiple weapons” had been found and secured.
Alabama State and Alabama A&M are historically Black universities and archrivals whose annual contest has been played for more than 100 years. Nearly 70,000 fans attended Saturday’s game, won by Alabama A&M 31-28. The event draws some of the largest crowds in the country for games played in their college football division.
The Magic City Classic has such a deep history that Alabama State coach Eddie Robinson Jr., a former NFL linebacker and alumnus of the school, proposed creating a Hall of Fame for the game.
In Dallas, police planned a news conference Sunday to address what it called “multiple” reports of overnight shootings in the downtown Deep Ellum neighborhood.
In Newark, Delaware, six people were shot shortly after 11:10 p.m. Saturday near the University of Delaware campus, Newark police Lt. Greg D’Elia said. All six were transported to hospitals for treatment. Video shared on social media showed people running for safety from the scene. One stretch of the city’s Main Street was closed for several hours after the shooting.
And in Fayetteville, Arkansas, six people were taken to hospitals with gunshot wounds from a shooting that happened early Sunday. No arrests have been made, police said in a news release. A preliminary investigation indicates an altercation preceded the shooting.
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