Four young people, including an infant, were shot on Saturday at a church-sponsored Easter carnival in Alabama when someone opened fire on the crowd, reports say.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office reported that at about 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, gunfire broke out during an argument at a carnival hosted by the Cathedral of the Cross A.O.H. Church of God of Birmingham, Alabama.
Panic spread among the nearly one thousand people inside the venue or waiting outside to get in, and several others were hurt in the confusion, including a pregnant woman, as people pushed and ran to get away from the gunfire.
In the rush to escape the gunfire, a ten-year-old boy was briefly lost but later turned up unharmed when police restored order.
“It is kind of shocking because we have had festivals for 15 years ever since we have been a city and never had anything occur. It was a shock,” Center Point Mayor Tom Henderson said, according to AL.com.
Center Point Fire Chief Donnie West told the media that all the victims were treated at UAB Hospital except the infant who was taken to Children’s of Alabama.
The chief was relieved that the situation was not worse than it was: “This could have been extremely bad,” West exclaimed.
Witness Felicia Stubbs, who lives across the street from the venue, told of the confusion: “You either jumped the fence or you got shot. I just thank the Lord Jesus Christ that we’re still here,” she said.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.