4 dead and 17 injured after gunfire erupts at popu

4 dead and 17 injured after gunfire erupts at popular nightlife area in Birmingham, Alabama, police say.

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Four people were killed and 17 others were injured when multiple shooters opened fire Saturday evening in a bustling entertainment district in Birmingham, Alabama, in what police now believe was a targeted “hit.”

Just after 11 p.m., multiple people drove up to the Five Points South area, got out of their vehicle and began shooting, then got back in and drove away, Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond said Sunday.

Police believe the shooters were carrying out a hit on one person and the other victims were caught in the crossfire.

“Someone was willing to pay money to have that person killed,” Thurmond said.

Detectives are still “working to determine who was the intended target(s) of the shooting,” the police department said in a Sunday news release.

With no suspects in custody, the Birmingham Police Department is partnering with the FBI and other agencies to investigate, urging anyone with information to come forward.

The shooters are “believed” to have used machine gun conversion devices, according to the Sunday news release. The devices can be used to override the trigger mechanism on a gun, so it functions as a machine gun.

The US Attorney’s office in Birmingham announced an initiative cracking down on the devices in July.

Conversion devices “can convert semi-automatic pistols and rifles into fully automatic weapons in less than 60 seconds,” according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The federal government considers the small devices themselves to be illegal machine guns. Even without an accompanying firearm, they are illegal to own.