Five arrests made in connection to Dadeville mass shooting
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Travis McCullough
Wilson LaMar Hill Jr.
Johnny Letron Brown
Willie George Brown Jr.
By Christa Jennings
Senior staff writer
Five arrests, including two teenagers and three adults, have now been made in connection to the mass shooting that rocked the small city of Dadeville last Saturday night, creating a tragic ripple effect that left surrounding communities and other areas reeling in shock and sympathy for the community.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, or ALEA, has consistently provided updates via press releases and holding some press conferences following the tragedy, with nine press releases having been sent out as of press time. The investigation is ongoing, so more details are anticipated to come out in the following days and beyond.
According to the ninth update, sent yesterday afternoon shortly before 3 p.m., the state reported the fifth and latest arrest being made in connection to the “Tallapoosa County death investigation.” That death investigation stemmed from a shooting at a sixteenth birthday party that left four dead and 32 injured.
Initially, during a press conference held Wednesday morning, ALEA reported that special agents with ALEA’s State Bureau of Investigation, or SBI, had made two arrests in the case. The first two arrested were both teenagers from Tuskegee, 17-year-old Ty Reik McCullough and 16-year-old Travis McCullough.
The Tuskegee teenagers were arrested at approximately 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 18. However, during the press conference regarding the arrests, ALEA would not comment on whether the two were already in custody when they were arrested in connection to the shooting or where the arrests were made.
Following the press conference, that afternoon ALEA reported a third arrest had been made in the case. At approximately 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 19, SBI arrested 20-year-old Wilson LaMar Hill Jr. of Auburn.
Yesterday morning ALEA reported a fourth arrest, with SBI arresting 20-year-old Johnny Letron Brown, also of Tuskegee, who was arrested yesterday, April 20, at approximately 8 a.m.
Finally, shortly before 3 p.m. yesterday, ALEA reported that at approximately 11:45 a.m. yesterday, SBI special agents made a fifth arrest in the case, 19-year-old Willie George Brown Jr. of Auburn.
All five suspects have been formally charged with four counts of reckless murder each. They have been booked into the Tallapoosa County Jail with no bond.
According to prior court cases, including Woods v. State and Napier v. State, in Alabama a person who commits the crime of reckless murder is “determined to act no matter what the consequences to others,” and this person demonstrates that he or she was “determined to follow a course of action that he or she knew, or should have known, would, in all probability” lead to the death of a person or persons.
In Alabama a murder charge is considered a Class A felony, and, if convicted, can carry a sentence of a minimum of 10 years imprisonment up to 99 years or life.
ALEA reported that SBI made the five arrests after “a complex and thorough investigation was conducted with assistance from a multitude of law enforcement agencies following the shooting that occurred at approximately 10:34 p.m. on Saturday, April 15, near the 200 block of Broadnax Street in Dadeville, located in Tallapoosa County.”
The Dadeville Police Department; Tuskegee Police Department; Tallapoosa County Sheriff’s Office; Macon County Sheriff’s Office; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives
(ATF); Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); the United States Marshals Service; and the 5th Circuit District Attorney’s Office were all instrumental in assisting and supporting the investigation, along with locating and apprehending the suspects, according to ALEA.
While it was initially reported that 28 individuals were injured in the shooting, in its third update ALEA reported that the total number of injuries had increased to 32 individuals.
Following last Saturday’s shooting, on Sunday special agents with SBI, along with local and federal partners, established a command post at the Tallapoosa County Courthouse in Dadeville and launched an extensive investigation using a multitude of resources to process the scene.
After conducting a preliminary analysis of the evidence at the scene, as well as reviewing information received thus far, it was reported that special agents are still in the process of “gathering an examining information relative to the sequence of events which ultimately led to the shooting.”
ALEA reported that the agents did not recover any high-powered rifle ammunition at the scene. However, they did recover numerous shell casings used in handguns.
The shooting occurred at the Mahogany Masterpiece dance studio near the town square in downtown Dadeville at Alexis Dowdell’s sixteenth birthday party.
The four fatalities included Alexis’s brother, 18-year-old Philstavious “Phil” Dowdell, a star wide receiver at Dadeville High School who had secured a scholarship and planned to play college football at Jacksonville State University this fall; 17-year-old Dadeville High School senior Shaunkivia Nicole “KeKe” Smith, an athlete who had become a team manager and planned to attend the University of Alabama; 2022 Opelika High School graduate 19-year-old Marsiah Emmanual “Sayah” Collins, who was planning to attend Louisiana State University this fall; and 2018 Dadeville High School alumnus 23-year-old Corbin Dahmontrey Holston, also a former school athlete, who went to the party to check on a younger family member who was reportedly afraid of trouble.
According to reports, Holston’s relatives stated that the shooting started shortly after his arrival and that he managed to drag his younger relative to safety before Holston was fatally shot.
While there was a press conference outside the Tallapoosa County Courthouse Wednesday morning announcing the first two arrests, press conferences have not been held since then, as of press time. Instead, the subsequent two arrests were announced via press releases.
However, during Wednesday morning’s press conference, Sgt. Jeremy Burkett with ALEA stated, “Before we go any further, I absolutely want to thank this community and the information that was provided, and I also want to reiterate how important it is going to be for you to continue to do that. Please understand, with the violence that went on and the magnitude of what happened, we are absolutely still in the early stages of this investigation. This is absolutely the beginning; this is not the end. There is a tremendous amount of work that is yet to be done. We’re going to continue to do exactly what we’ve been doing. We’re going to be careful with everything we say, with everything that we do, because we are going to stay focused on the families and the victims, but we’re going to need the public’s help when we do that.”
He emphasized how crucial the public’s help is with this investigation and building a strong case to ensure justice.
“If you were at the venue that night, if you were physically at the venue, and you have not come forward, meaning you have not contacted law enforcement, please hear me. I absolutely want you to do that,” he stated. “We need you to come forward for these families, for these victims.”
Burkett added, “Make no mistake, this is Alabama, and when you pull out a gun, and you start shooting people, we’re going to put you in jail. We’re going to do that because we’re thinking about the families. We’re concerned about the families. We were in the beginning, and we will be through the remainder of this investigation, because somebody’s got to start thinking about mama.”
“I know I’m tired of it, and everybody behind me is tired of it,” Burkett stated, gesturing to the ALEA representatives and other officials behind him at the press conference. “We’re tired of going to the mothers and having to tell them that these kids are not coming home. So that’s what we’re going to be concerned about. We’re not concerned about the headlines. We’re worried about mama. That’s going to be our focus. We’re going to stay laser focused on this investigation throughout the duration, but again, it’s going to take personal courage of the individuals who were there that night to come forward, come talk to law enforcement, tell the truth; we need that information.”
Fifth Circuit District Attorney Mike Segrest, whose circuit includes Tallapoosa County, also spoke at Wednesday’s press conference. He commented on the frustration felt by the communities and media alike regarding the initial lack of information about suspects and other details that were not being shared.
“I know that there has been some frustration among our community and among the media about a lack of information that has been provided up to this point, and I want to explain part of the reason for that,” Segrest stated. “As a prosecutor, I cannot discuss specific facts of the case. It’s highly inappropriate for me to come out and publicly talk about that and tell that information. The reason being, defendants have constitutional rights. They’ve got to be tried by a jury of their peers inside this building. They have a right to be represented by a counsel. For me to come out here and give information about what’s going on in the investigation, I can’t discuss the details of that with y’all – and I apologize, but I hope you’ll understand that – nor can law enforcement. So we won’t be discussing all of the details.”
Segrest went on to state, “I can tell you a few things about the process of what will happen next with these individuals.”
Segrest stated that the two teenagers initially arrested would be charged as adults.
He explained that the suspects would be entitled to an Aniah’s Law hearing, or bond hearing, that has to occur within 72 hours from the time of the arrests. Segrest said that the State of Alabama will be requesting no bond for the suspects in this case, adding that while it is ultimately up to the judge to decide, “that will be the state’s position.”
Segrest went on to explain that following the bond hearing there will be an initial court appearance, followed by a preliminary hearing. Then, depending on the outcome of the hearing, he said the case would go to a grand jury.
He said that in Tallapoosa County the grand jury convenes twice a year, once in March and again in September. He explained that once a grand jury is in panel in March, it is still the grand jury for that 6-month period.
He went on to say that they can recall the grand jury to present an indictment or indictments under special situations.
“That’s unprecedented and hasn’t been done that I’m aware of anytime recently here,” Segrest said. “This is an unprecedented situation. If we can establish the facts and are ready to present that, we will be asking our grand jury to come back in to present that so we can move forward efficiently and effectively.”
Segrest went on to say, “This is a very complex case. We’ve mentioned four counts of reckless murder. Obviously that just includes the four deceased that have been reported. We’ve got a lot more victims in this. There are still four in the hospital, four in critical condition. There’ll be pending charges regarding all those. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There will be forthcoming charges. We’re going to make sure every one of those victims has justice and not just the deceased.”
“When we talk about the victims … there were so many kids in this venue, and what they saw – they’re victims in this,” Segrest said. “Their families are victims in this. The ripple effect of this, it’s kind of like a wave rolling across Lake Martin, but that ripple didn’t stop when it hit the banks. There are other communities involved. There were kids from Reeltown here; one of the ones in critical condition had gone to prom that night in Reeltown. There’s kids from Tallassee, kids from Booker T. W., kids from Alexander City. We haven’t even identified, possibly, where all some of these kids came from. It’s a traumatic thing for them. They need help. Our services are available for them, as well.”
Segrest further stated that he wanted to specifically mention one of the victims who was not injured, Lexie Dowdell. He stated that it was Lexie’s sixteenth birthday party – her Sweet 16 – where the shooting occurred.
“There’s uncut cake and unburnt 16 candles that never got lit,” Segrest said. “Lexie’s brother is one of the victims. On her sixteenth birthday party, she knelt by her brother as he took his last breath. That’s what we’re dealing with here. Those are what these victims went through.”
He added, “The message that I want to send is, I know some of these victims personally. Some of these kids are kids of friends of mine, people that I went to school with, people that I played ball with and against, in the community back in high school, and these are my kids. These are our kids. Don’t mess with our kids. Do not mess with our kids.”
Segrest also thanked all of the agencies involved in the case and said that without the numerous resources those agencies have brought to the community, they would not have been where they were and made those arrests so far.
Dadeville Police Chief Jonathan Floyd spoke at the press conference, mentioning the victims who were physically injured, as well as the victims who were there “who have emotional scars and injuries they’ll carry the rest of their lives.”
“To our families, we love you,” Floyd said at the press conference Wednesday. “The Dadeville Police Department is going to do everything we can to make sure that we have a successful prosecution for you. One of the decisions I made very early on was to get our state and federal partners involved. The resources that they have provided have been invaluable. I ask for patience. As you’ve already been told, this is the tip of the iceberg. This is the very beginning. We have one chance to get this right. In a few days most of you are going to be gone. Our community’s still going to be here. Our victims, people that are affected, are still going to be here. We’re going to be here with them.”
He went on to say, “As the police chief, as members of law enforcement, we owe it to every person affected to make sure that we’re very slow, make sure we’re very methodical, because as I said, we have one opportunity to get this right. This case is not just about making an arrest. That is not the finish line. If we hurry, if we’re careless, and we do make an arrest but it does not result in conviction, it does not result in ultimate justice for our victims, we have failed our victims. So I ask each of you to please be patient, please be understanding. To our victims who may not be Dadevillians, but were here that night, I’ve got news for you – now you’re an honorary Dadevillian whether you want it or not, ‘cause we love you, and you’re a part of our city and part of our family.”
Floyd also mentioned the numerous agencies who responded and assisted during this trying time for the community.
“They did not care that this wasn’t their community,” he stated. “They were here because they have a servant’s heart.”
He added that they were not going to do anything that would jeopardize the investigation and asked everyone to “please continue to lift us up.”
Sgt. Burkett with ALEA said that the partnership among the agencies “has been amazing” and stated that it is “ultimately about justice.”
In taking questions at the end of the press conference, he stated that they could not provide details on any motive at the time since it is part of an ongoing investigation. When asked about any connection between the McCullough teens and the people at the party, Burkett stated that he “absolutely can’t speak to that.”
When asked if the two might have been in custody for other charges, Burkett stated that “what we’re prepared to say today is they were arrested and officially charged at 8 p.m. yesterday [Tuesday,]” adding that he could not say if they were already in custody “for something else.”
Also when asked about the number of guns used or how many shell casings were recovered at the scene, Burkett said he “cannot speak to the details of that investigation.”
While some reports have referred to the teenagers as brothers, their relationship has not been officially stated as of press time.
DA Segrest stated that his website has information and resources for victims and victims’ families, including information relating to victim services from the FBI, attorney general’s office and others. The website can be accessed at 5thcircuitda.org, and there is a special section listed at the top of the site specifically for the Dadeville resources.
ALEA is still asking for the public’s assistance in this case. If you or anyone you know has information regarding the mass shooting, contact SBI’s Crime information hotline at 1-800-392-8011 or email to sbi.investigations@alea.gov or contact Central Alabama Crime Stoppers at 1-833-AL1-STOP or at www.215stop.com.
ALEA’s Fusion Center has also partnered with the FBI Mobile Office to provide a digital tip line for videos and photos related to the incident. Those files may be uploaded at: tips.fbi.gov/digitalmedia/29fa2c127a79963.
Also, if anyone has information for the 5th Circuit District Attorney’s Office concerning the shooting or need to provide information to the individuals or families concerning victim services, please visit: https://5thcircuitda.org/dadeville.
Nothing further is available from ALEA as of press time as the investigation remains ongoing.
Editor’s note: After the newspaper had gone to press Thursday night, ALEA sent an update regarding a sixth arrest having been made Thursday morning. Read the latest information regarding that arrest at www.thecoosacountyn
