Alabama shooting: 16-year-old girl says brother was killed saving her life

Alexis Dowdell said she spent much of her last day with her older brother sitting on his bed fretting about the party she had been planning for months. A successful high-school football wide receiver, Phil Dowdell reportedly responded by cheering his sister up, getting her to laugh and promising to make sure she enjoyed herself at her celebration.

The party resumed, and gunshots soon rang out. Phil Dowdell immediately pushed Alexis Dowdell to the ground, and the siblings became separated in the ensuing chaos, the sister told CNN and the BBC. After escaping the dance studio, she realized Phil had been shot, and she went back in to be with him as he lay on the floor bleeding.

Meanwhile, state law enforcement officials did not specify whether every one of the surviving injured victims had been shot. But CNN reported that at least 15 teenagers were being treated for bullet wounds at one local hospital, according to an official at the facility.

As of Tuesday morning, there have been 164 mass shootings in the US this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive resource website. The archive defines a mass shooting as one with four or more victims who were killed or wounded.

Biden was among the most prominent figures to react to the killings in Dadeville. As he has done repeatedly after mass shootings during his time at the White House, the US president again urged Congress to pass legislation holding firearms manufacturers liable for violence committed with their products; banning assault-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines; and requiring safe storage of firearms as well as background checks for gun sales.