Mike Segrest took office as U.S. Attorney for Alabama’s Fifth Judicial Circuit in January 2023.

Just three months later, he faced a mass shooting killed four people and injured 32 others at a Sweet 16 birthday party in Dadeville.

Now, with shooting at Tuskegee University that killed one and injured 16 othersSegrest is charged with prosecuting a second mass shooting in less than two years.

“The trend is concerning to me,” said Segrest, whose district covers Chambers, Macon, Randolph and Tallapoosa counties.

“Obviously there are significant differences between the two.”

More shooters and more shooting

In Dadeville, the crime scene was a small downtown dance studio—crammed and packed with about 75 people. At least seven guns were fired, leaving 89 shell casings on the floor.

“This is a large area in Tuskegee, an open parking lot where there were a large number of people,” Segrest said. “Several hundred, if not a thousand people were at the scene.”

Authorities have not said how many shots were fired in the Sunday morning shooting who killed 18-year-old La’Tavion Johnsonnor how many people fired shots.

Authorities said the number of shooters and shots fired could feasibly be much higher than Dadeville’s.

There are, Segrest said, more similarities than differences between the two.

“Both involve what was intended to be a celebration and a good time,” he said. “And both involved young people showing up to these gatherings with guns.”

“It turned out that a Glock switch was used in the Dadeville shooting, and the only arrest that has been made so far in Tuskegee involves federal charges for a machine gun,” he said. “So we know both involved the use of automatic weapons.”

“I think Tuskegee will involve multiple shooters and a large number of shots fired as well,” he said, “and both were Black on Black crimes.”

The investigation continues in Tuskegee

The Dadeville shooting happened on April 15, 2023, at a party honoring Alexis Dowdell, whose brother Phil, 18, was killed.

Shaunkiva “KeKe” Smith17, Marsiah Emmanuel “Siah” Collins19 and Corbin Dahmontrey Holston23 years old, he also died that night.

Another 24 people suffered gunshot wounds. Four others were wounded but not shot. Most of the 28 injured were teenagers.

The oldest surviving victim was LaTonya Allen, the 37-year-old mother of Alexis and Phil Dowdell.

The other victims were a 19-year-old, six 18-year-olds, three 17-year-olds, ten 16-year-olds, five 15-year-olds and two 14-year-olds.

Six suspects, including several minors, were charged in this case.

The Tuskegee shooting happened before dawn Sunday in the West Commons apartments on campus.

The shooting occurred as Tuskegee’s 100th Homecoming Week was winding down. His football team that Saturday played HBCU Miles College in Fairfield.

Johnson, whose family said he died saving someone else, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Lt. Jeremy Burkett said that of the 16 wounded, 12 of them were shot. They were taken to hospitals in Montgomery and Lee County.

According to Burkett, four others suffered injuries during the ensuing chaos.

A 25-year-old man was arrested leaving the filming location federal charges of possession of a machine gun.

No one has been charged in Johnson’s death or the injuries to the others.

Tuskegee University has replaced its security chief and instituted a new policy requiring identification for entry and to be worn on campus at all times.

Classes have been canceled for Monday and Tuesday.

“Maybe we’ll never know”

Segrest said he got the call about the Dadeville shooting around 1:30 a.m. and was on the scene before daylight.

In Tuskegee and Dadeville, multiple agencies work together, including city and county law enforcement officers and ALEA, the FBI and ATF.

“The whole process was overwhelming, but there were so many people who came to our aid and came to our aid,” Segrest said of Dadeville.

“ALEA took over the (Dadeville) investigation, as they are in this one. The FBI in the mobile office is helping with social media and video evidence, and the ATF is helping with shell casings and other things.”

“So from that standpoint, (Tuskegee) was a little less overwhelming for me personally because I know how wonderful these people are and I trust them 100 percent and the process they go through in methodically processing a crime scene , ” Segrest said.

Investigators completed most of the investigation at the scene and moved the campus command center back to ALEA headquarters in Montgomery on Monday afternoon.

Segrest said a motive has not yet been confirmed.

It’s possible that one person fired shots and then others pulled out their guns and started shooting, too, without even knowing why, Segrest said.

“I’m not ready to say that’s what happened here,” he said. “We have not seen or heard any evidence of what caused the fire to break out.”

“Everybody wants to know, ‘Why?’ Segrest said. “I tell the families of my victims that we may never know.”

“Fortunately for me, ‘why’ is not one of the elements of proof beyond a reasonable doubt of murder or attempted murder,” he said.

“Most of the murder cases I’ve dealt with involve young people, 16, 17, 18, 19,” he said. “Not that there is ever a justifiable murder, but they all seem so pointless.”

“No one has a duty to retire”

Segrest said the state’s evolving gun laws present challenges for prosecutors.

“There are always unintended consequences,” he said, noting Alabama’s Stand Your Ground law, which was signed into law by former Gov. Bob Riley.

“It sounded good, too, because of something that happened nationally,” he said.

“Now, that being said and being the law, if someone pulls out a gun in a busy parking lot and someone else pulls out theirs and starts shooting, they can claim self-defense … because nobody has a duty to retreat.”

“It ends up being a shootout at the OK Corral, which makes it very difficult from a prosecution standpoint to follow,” Segrest said.

“Then you add in the constitutional legislation that was wildly popular and sounded like a great thing to pass,” he said, referring to the permit-less concealed carry bill that Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law last year in law.

“I’m very pro-gun, very pro-Second Amendment, but I think if we’re going to require kids to take a class before they get a hunting license, there should definitely be a prerequisite to owning a gun.” , he said.

“Right now, if law enforcement pulls over a group of 19-year-olds and every one of them has a gun in their lap and law enforcement can’t do anything,” he said. “They can check to see if the guns are stolen, but other than that, there’s nothing they can do.”

“The amount of guns and the culture of taking them to these parties and showing them and showing them, for every one of these two mass shootings that everybody is aware of, I see and hear about all the others where more people shoot at a house or a vehicle that just doesn’t make headlines.”

It’s something that happens all over the state and is extremely difficult to prosecute, he said.

It is also costly, not only humanly but also financially.

About 60 investigators were on the scene in Tuskegee on Sunday and Monday, he said, and that doesn’t include off-site work such as analyzes and lab tests.

“I would hate to even guess how much money is required to handle the investigation when we have cases of this magnitude,” he said.

“It should be in the millions.”