A Facebook fight that started three weeks ago among high school girls in Birmingham, Ala., turned deadly Friday evening when the teenagers took the cyber quarrel to the park and gunfire erupted, police say.
One of the girls, 14, died from gunshot wounds and two others are in the hospital, but expected to recover, authorities said.
Two male suspects, including one who was said to have been dating one of the girls involved in the fight, are believed to have fired the shots and have been taken into custody, police said.
Three weeks earlier several girls began quarrelling with each other on Facebook, Edwards said. “Several of the girls, including the victim, agreed to meet at a local park and fight,” he said.There is one report the girls planned to video the fight and post it online.
When the girls began fighting in the park, all of a sudden two teenage males, who are now suspects, pulled out their guns and started shooting at the girls, police said. Neither the names of the victims or the suspects have been released.
Birmingham police spokesman Lt. Sean Edwards said police responded to a call of a person shot around 6:15 p.m. and arrived to find a wounded 14-year-old girl in the 900 Block of Washington Avenue S.W. She was taken to Baptist Princeton Hospital where she was pronounced dead..
Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper was at the crime scene and in an interview with al.com said he was disturbed by the incident.
"It's extremely challenging for us as a police department," Roper told al.com "It's challenging for these families because here's a group of kids who have decided that they're going to fight and put it on social media where everybody can see it.”
Sherrel W. Stewart is a freelance writer based in Alabama.