Gunman opens fire in Tuscaloosa, 17 wounded
Police respond to a shooting at a downtown Tuscaloosa, Ala., bar in the early hours of Tuesday, July 17, 2012. Sixteen people were wounded, four critically. / WIAT
Last Updated 9:18 a.m. ET
(CBS/AP) TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Seventeen people were wounded when a gunman opened fire outside a crowded bar at a downtown square in Tuscaloosa, the home of the University of Alabama.
Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steve Anderson told The Associated Press that the gunman fired first through a window of The Copper Top, then shot at people outside as they fled the bar. He said the gunman never went inside during the assault early Tuesday.
Hospital spokesman Brad Fisher said 17 people were being treated at DCH Regional Medical Center
Four of the victims have been admitted to the hospital, and two of them were receiving critical care, Fisher said. It wasn't immediately known whether all the injuries were from gunfire, he said.
Riley Dunn, a University of Alabama senior who was injured in the shooting, estimated that there were 80 to 90 people in the area at the time, near a bar in the area of Temerson Square.
Eyewitnesses told CBS Affiliate WIAT that the Copper Top bar was hosting its weekly pool tournament when gunfire broke out.
Dunn said there was one gunshot, then about 20 seconds later "that's when he really started firing them off," and everyone scattered.
Police released this photo of the suspect wanted for the shooting at a downtown bar early Tuesday, July 17, 2012.
/ Tuscaloosa Police Dept.Dunn, who was shot in the leg, told WIAT, said he didn't see the gunman shooting. "All we seen was sparks and people ducking and the glass busting," he said. "I felt something hit me. We all took off and sort of hid."
Several patrons chased after the shooter.
Tuscaloosa police have called a news conference for 10 a.m. Tuesday to release more details of the shootings.
The Tuscaloosa Police Department posted a picture of the suspect on its Facebook and Twitter pages, and will hold a press conference at 10 a.m.
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Where is the line. I don't know but an outright ban would only effect law abiding people who aren't the problem. There are people who shouldn't drive, drink, gamble, do drugs. Where do you apply the ban, who is in charge of it, who make the decision. Do you punish the many because of the few. What right will you give up when they come knocking on your door. Free speech, freedom of search & seizure, right to trial? Once you let them in the door, whomever is in control has all the rights and you have none. Do all the liberals want strict consevatives in control and vice versa. This isn't something that can be answered in the small spaces here. Way too many parts that would need to be taken into account.
You were very clear in expressing your view as to why people should own guns in about a single page.
You sound like a very sound, reasonable, and responsible individual, but I am going to take only a paragraph to tell you why guns, though not entirely banned, should not be readily across the board and available to anyone who has the money to produce the cash.
You are human. As a human you have emotions. Those emotions when sufficiently intense, can cause one to act on a whim, completely without reasoning or common sense, no matter what the character of the posessor might be. That state of emotion coupled with the availability of a gun, all too often promotes a regrettable but irreversible kneejerk reaction that may not ever have been an option had the gun not been at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Because we all know how well that worked with prohibition right?
Because that sound logic has been working great with the war on drugs right?
It makes me sick how simple minded and hypocritical liberals can be, they will loudly decry both of the examples above while trying to apply the same rules for guns. Are you really stupid enough to want to drive the gun market underground so that the only people with access to them will be the criminals? Don't answer that question, you will just further embarrass yourself.
If any law abiding citizen there had a gun to return fire, he might not have been able to hit a single soul.
ANY sensible person would not compare apples & oranges either, but you chose drugs & prohibition.
Drugs are addictive. You start, you can't stop without help. And that doesn't always work. Addicts are not known to start killing people randomly, just for shts&giggles!
Prohibition was stupid from the outset. There are your wonderful reps! Like asking people to stop breathing. Again, most drinkers (not drunks!) do not go out and randomly shoot people down!
ANYONE who owns a gun can and may start shooting randomly at anyone they see if they can justify it. Just accidentely bumping his/her arm may be justification enough!
It could be your neighbor, child, teacher, doctor....ANYONE!
It WAS underground and we didn't have near the problems we have now! We worried about criminals, not our neighbors!
If anyone there had a gun, and the bartender probably did, do you think he's stupid enough to shoot through all the people in there?
What about on the street? Cars?
I think you have embarrassed yourself but are too thick to realize it! NRA goon!
Because we all know how well that worked with prohibition right?
Because that sound logic has been working great with the war on drugs right?
It makes me sick how simple minded and hypocritical liberals can be, they will loudly decry both of the examples above while trying to apply the same rules for guns. Are you really stupid enough to want to drive the gun market underground so that the only people with access to them will be the criminals? Don't answer that question, you will just further embarrass yourself.
If any law abiding citizen there had a gun to return fire, he might not have been able to hit a single soul.
How come all those gun-toting rednecks let themselves be shot!