Police in Birmingham, Alabama, are working to identify multiple people who opened fire in a bustling entertainment district Saturday night as part of what they called a targeted “hit” that left 4 dead and 17 injured – including many bystanders caught in the barrage of bullets.

Officers responded to reports of a shooting in Five Points South in Birmingham after 11 p.m. to find three “unresponsive” people who were later declared dead, according to Birmingham Officer Truman Fitzgerald. A fourth victim, a man, was pronounced deceased at an area hospital, according to hospital staff.

In a news release on Sunday, police identified three of the four people killed as Anitra Holloman, 21; Tahj Booker, 27; and Carlos McCain, 27. Authorities are still working to identify the remaining male victim.

Seventeen other people were injured, according to Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond. At least four victims have life-threatening injuries, Fitzgerald said.

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.

Here’s what we know about the mass shooting:

Targeted attack

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,” Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond said Sunday.

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

More than 100 shell casings were recovered from the scene, Thurmond added.

The city is committed to finding the shooters involved, Randall Woodfin, Birmingham’s mayor, told CNN. “Our focus and our priority is literally the shooter or shooters who committed this heinous crime – to make sure we can take them off the street,” he said.

Five Points South is a busy area known for its restaurants, nightclubs, pubs and live music venues near the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus and downtown.

Like a ‘horror movie’

Gabriel Eslami, 24, was standing in line outside Hush, a hookah bar, about 11 p.m. when gunfire broke out.

“All of a sudden it was just gunshots, gunshots, gunshots,” Eslami told CNN. “I started running for my life.” Less than three seconds later, Eslami said he wasn’t able to feel his leg and fell to the ground.

What he saw next, Eslami described as a “horror movie.”

“There are bodies laid out all over the sidewalk, gun smoke in the air. There are shoes. People ran out of their shoes trying to escape. I saw people hiding behind cars, laying under cars,” he said.

Eslami was taken to hospital to be treated for his gunshot wound caused by a bullet that passed millimeters from his artery, he said doctors told him. “I don’t even know the words to describe how I feel knowing that I was blessed enough to make it out with minimal injuries and some people didn’t go home that night,” he said.

Dajon Singleton told CNN affiliate WBMA he had been out for the night with plans to barhop when he heard “grieving-type screaming.”

“That’s when I instantly knew someone had lost a loved one,” he said.

When Singleton first arrived at the shooting scene, there were “people everywhere. People crying, screaming, I seen people running, so, it was very busy,” he told WBMA.Singleton also witnessed five or six people on a stretcher.

Gun violence is at an ‘epidemic level’ in Birmingham, mayor says

Woodfin has said gun violence is at an “epidemic level” in Birmingham and called for stricter legislation to fight the problem.

“I want to work with the state to solve this problem,” he said.

While crime rates are trending down nationally, Birmingham saw a spike earlier this year.

FBI data show murder rates dropped by more than 26% nationally in the first three months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. As of March 4, Birmingham police reported 17 murders this year, compared to 12 during the same period last year, a 41.7% increase.

A shooting at a nightclub in July left four people dead and 10 others injured, according to CNN affiliate WVRC, and four men were shot and killed outside a public library in February, CNN affiliate WVTM reported.

Police believe the shooters used illegal gun conversion devices, the department said in its Sunday news release. These devices can be used to override the trigger mechanism on a gun, so it functions as a machine gun.

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.

The US Attorney’s office in Birmingham announced an initiative cracking down on the devices, commonly known as “switches,” in July.

“Glock switches are the number one public safety issue in our city and State,” Woodfin said in a Facebook post. “We really need State Legislators to help. Ban Glock switches.”

Fitzgerald, the Birmingham officer, said mass shootings “have more to do with culture than they do criminality,” adding, “We’re seeing far too many arguments being settled by bullets.”

‘You will receive justice for your loss’

The mayor has said his focus is on supporting the victims’ families.

“Right now, my mind is on the families who are experiencing a sudden, giant void in their lives. The innocent people currently under medical care fighting for their lives,” Woodfin said in a statement posted to Facebook. “The children who are experiencing loss and grief far, far too soon.

“I hope the perpetrators of this crime know how deep this trauma goes. There are families and children in immeasurable pain,” Woodfin added. “For every person touched by last night’s violence, know that your city weeps with you,” he said.

“You will receive justice for your loss.”

Authorities have set up a QR code for those looking to share information about the mass shooting.

CNN’s Zoe Sottile and Raja Razek contributed to this report.