One killed in shooting at New Year’s Eve festival in Alabama

One person was killed and nine hurt in a shooting a few blocks away from where thousands were in the streets for a New Year’s Eve celebration in downtown Mobile, Alabama, police said.

TV news footage showed police officers running and on horseback rushing to the area where the shooting took place about 45 minutes before midnight Saturday.

Neither the name of the person killed nor the conditions of the nine people taken to the hospital have been released by police.

The shooting happened a few blocks away from the main stage for the Moon Pie Over Mobile festival. The event continued on with fireworks and a moon pie dropping from a downtown building at midnight to mark the start of 2023.

The shooter and the person killed appeared to know each other, Mobile police chief Paul Prine told reporters near the scene.

“It would give some comfort to all of us downtown that this was not just a random shooting,” Prine said.

Officers responded to a report of shots fired and found an “unknown subject” had shot a 24-year-old man, who was pronounced dead at the scene, a police department press release stated.

Nine other people, from ages 17 to 57, were injured, suffering gunshot wounds. They were taken to area hospitals “with injuries ranging from non-life-threatening to severe”, according to the press release.

“This is an active investigation. We will provide updates as details become available,” the police statement added.