Alabama birthday girl begged dying brother to 'stay with me'

An Alabama girl's Sweet 16 birthday party ended with her kneeling beside her fatally wounded brother on the blood-slicked floor of a dance studio in small-town Alabama, the bodies of other wounded teens scattered around them.

Alexis Dowdell's Sweet 16 birthday party ended with her kneeling beside her fatally wounded brother on the blood-slicked floor of a dance studio in small-town Alabama, the bodies of other wounded teens scattered around them.

Dowdell told the story of Saturday's terror in Dadeville to The Associated Press on Monday surrounded by family. The shooting left her 18-year-old brother, Philstavious "Phil" Dowdell, and three others dead, along with another 32 injured, some critically.

"I got on my knees and he was laying face down. And that's when I grabbed him. I turned him over, I was holding him," Alexis Dowdell said, recalling the moment she found her brother with the life ebbing out of him.

She tapped her brother's face as he drifted in an out of consciousness, begging him to, "stay with me, stay with me." She recalled: "I wasn't crying at the moment because I was trying to be strong instead of panicking. And so I said, `You're going to be all right. You're a fighter, you're strong."'

As of Tuesday morning, state officials had yet to release much information about their investigation. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said only that shell casings from handguns had been found, noting that there was no evidence a high-powered rifle was used. Investigators continued to appeal for information from the public, including videos.

The weekend was marked by a series of high-profile shootings in the U.S. One left two people dead and four wounded Saturday in Louisville, Kentucky; another resulted in four men being shot -- one fatally -- in Los Angeles; and a third left two women wounded at Lincoln University in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Saturday night in Dadeville, about an hour's drive northeast of Montgomery, began as it should have, with "everybody dancing, vibing to the music," Alexis Dowdell said. Keenan Cooper, the DJ at the party, told WBMA-TV the event was stopped briefly when partygoers heard someone had a gun. He said people with weapons were asked to leave, but no one did.