17 Injured in a Tuscaloosa Bar Shooting [Updated]

By Sam

Early this morning a very scary, tragic event took place: a shooting.

In an Alabama bar, around 12:30 a.m, one man, believed to be stocky and somewhere between 5’7 and 5’9, walked up to The Copper Top bar, stood outside for a few minutes, apparently looking for someone, and then began shooting a military-style assault rifle.  Seventeen people were admitted to the hospital due to injuries related to the shooting, though it is not certain how many were harmed from flying objects or bullets.  Of those currently hospitalized fortunately only one is in “extremely critical” condition, and three are in “critical condition”.

One college senior who was injured in the shooting claims that while the bar was crowded and definitely noisy, everyone was just hanging out, shooting pool, being relatively calm.  When the first gunshot was fired and heard, no one really knew what to think, yet after about 20 seconds, when the gunman really started firing them off, everyone scattered and chaos ensued.

Even worse, this bar is located in Tuscaloosa, about one mile away from the University of Alabama’s campus, meaning college students were also caught in the crossfire. Thank goodness it’s the summer semester and we can only hope the bar was less crowded with these young adults.

This entire situation is awful.  It’s even more frightening because there was no rising conflict that would have provoked the shooting; everyone was simply having a good time.

Click here for more info, and please remember to send your prayers to the people and their families involved in this terrible event.

Update: It appears that the shooter has turned himself over to the police.

[Photo via ABC News]