Shooting after Alabama football game leaves 1 dead, 8 injured

Key points

• One person was killed and eight injured in a shooting outside Legion Field in Birmingham after the Magic City Classic.
• Police Chief Michael Pickett said most spectators had left when shots were fired near vendors on Graymont Avenue.
• One person was detained for questioning and multiple weapons were found and secured, police said.

A mass shooting outside a football game in Alabama on Saturday killed one person and injured eight others, police said. The shooting happened outside Legion Field in Birmingham after the annual Magic City Classic football game.

Police Chief Michael Pickett said most spectators and families had already left the stadium property when shots rang out. He said the shooting happened nearby, where vendors were set up along Graymont Avenue.

What police said

Pickett called it a "completely senseless act of violence" and said he was grateful that more people were not injured. He said such shootings are seen not only in Birmingham but across the nation, and that it is important for the community to address the issue. The circumstances of the shooting were unclear.

Police spokesperson De'Rell Freeman said one person had been detained and taken to police headquarters for questioning. Freeman said multiple weapons had been found and secured.

completely senseless act of violence

— Police Chief Michael Pickett

The game and other shootings

Alabama State and Alabama A&M, historically Black universities and archrivals, have played the annual contest for more than 100 years. Nearly 70,000 fans attended Saturday's game, which Alabama A&M won 31-28.

The Alabama shooting was among several violent incidents nationwide on Halloween weekend. Shootings were also reported in Dallas; Newark, Delaware; Bloomington, Illinois; and Fayetteville, Arkansas, and two people were killed Friday in separate shootings at Spirit Halloween stores in California and Michigan.