Melinda Silmon opened her small diner for the Dadeville lunch crowd as usual at 11 a.m. Monday morning.

MeMama’s Grub Hub sits less than a mile from Dadeville High School and often serves students, educators and other community members of the small town of 3,000.

It’s also about three blocks from Dadeville’s town square where, at a Sweet 16 birthday party on April 15, four people were killed and at least 32 injured in gunfire. Many were teenagers and young adults.

Silmon, and many others in town, spent Sunday and Monday searching for answers and trying to support friends. Law enforcement have not yet identified a suspect or suspects or a motive.

Read more: What we know so far about a mass shooting in Dadeville that killed 4.

Violent crime is relatively rare in the community and surrounding Tallapoosa County, according to federal data. But Saturday’s shooting was undoubtably violent; some children remain in critical condition, according to AL.com reporting.

“Normally kids bury parents, but now parents are having to make arrangements for their children, and that’s a sad commentary,” said Rev. Emerson Ware, a pastor in nearby Alexander City.

The whole town was quiet on Monday. On the square, crime scene tape was taken down from the Mahogany Masterpiece dance studio. A few hours later, it was back up. A single bouquet of colorful daisies, wrapped in yellow plastic, sat on the sidewalk. Bullet holes and broken glass were visible. Flags flew at half staff.

“Reality hasn’t really sunk in yet,” said Terry Greer, a city councilman who stopped by to grab lunch at the diner.

Feelings of shock, disbelief and hurt are still fresh, many Dadeville residents said Monday morning.

There is no standard estimate of a mass shooting, but according to one research group, the Dadeville shooting is among 109 Alabama mass shootings since 2013. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1,315 people died by firearms in Alabama in 2021, the most recent year of data available. That tally could include accidental shootings, suicides and homicides.

“It’s going to take a while to heal,” said Dennis Lewandowski, who moved to Dadeville four years ago from Las Vegas, where he was part of another community struggling to heal from a mass shooting.

‘Biggest fears’

Silmon served hot dogs to families, a retired coach and other community members. She covered tabs for some, and is on a first-name basis for most.

She is a 1986 alumna of Dadeville High and the mother of a recent graduate, who is now a teacher in a nearby school district. She’s worked hard to build relationships with the local police department and area youth, both of whom are now grappling with what she said was one of her “biggest fears.”

“That school, those kids, they brought the community together,” she said, recounting how families would come out in droves on Friday nights to the football field to watch Philstavious Dowdell, a star athlete and among the four people killed Saturday.

Shaunkivia Nicole “Keke” Smith, 17, also was a Dadeville High School student. Marsiah Emmanuel “Siah” Collins, 19, and Corbin Dahmontrey Holston, 23, also died.

“They had nothing but life in front of them,” Silmon said.

Silmon is trying her best to be a resource for others. She talked with city officials Monday morning and said she had plans to spend some time visiting with other families that afternoon.

Dadeville High School held classes, but Tallapoosa County Superintendent Raymond Porter estimated that 30 to 40% of students were not following their regular schedule and were visiting counselors and mental health professionals.

As their classmates return to school, the district is enlisting the community to help students and families heal.

“This was not a school event – this was an outside event – but behind these walls, we’re going to take care of students,” Porter told AL.com Monday.

‘Combat-level trauma’

Meanwhile, community members and local officials are working in the background to support students and other families who may be impacted.

But in many ways, the community is at a loss for how to handle next steps, said T.C. Coley, a county commissioner in the next town over. Coordinating the proper resources has been especially difficult.

Coley has been working with families across communities to connect them with local aid. He’s one of several community leaders trying to bridge gaps in mental health care and other long term needs, as first-responders address injuries and officials continue to investigate.

“This is almost combat-level trauma,” Coley said, noting that small towns like Dadeville don’t often have the staffing to deal with large-scale tragedies. Local police and health care workers at Lake Martin Community Hospital said they struggled to work a mass casualty event. “Not everybody’s used to seeing this.”

Right now, Coley’s priority is finding people who still need help – whatever that need may be.

People from multiple different counties were at the Sweet 16 event Saturday night, he said, and students from multiple school districts were injured.

AL.com confirmed Monday that two Pike Road students were critically injured. Overall, nine victims were hospitalized in different locations in Alabama and Georgia.

Because law enforcement has given limited information to the public, Coley said, it’s been challenging to identify and reach out to those families.

“There’s a lot of grief, a lot of sadness, but we’ve got to find a way to take all that and give people a place to channel it,” he said. “So as part of their healing and grieving process, they can kind of feel like they contribute to moving forward. I think this sense of not knowing really impacts the ability to grieve, because you feel incomplete.”

Coley said he feels like the city has managed to come up with a good first-phase response. But he’s worried about whether people will get the long-term support they may need to properly heal.

“We always talk about how resilient young people are, but sometimes they’re only resilient because we don’t give them much of a choice,” he said.

‘I haven’t slept’

Rachel Edwards, Silmon’s neighbor, stopped by the diner with her two daughters, both recent graduates, around noon.

She said she tried to go to work this morning, but was too overwhelmed to stay at her desk.

Two of the victims lived in her and Silmon’s neighborhood, she said. This morning, her grandson asked her a heart wrenching question: Why do people kill?

“I haven’t slept. They don’t have to be your kids for you to feel this way,” she said, her glasses welling with tears.

Silmon reached to give her a hug.

“They’re all our kids,” Edwards said. “They’re our community’s kids. And I just, I hate it. I hate it.”

Read more:

Legislators join grandfather of teen killed in shooting to take stand on guns.

More people injured in Dadeville shooting than originally thought, ALEA says.

These are the 4 people killed at birthday party shooting in Dadeville.

Ed Lab toolkit: How to help children, young adults process shootings, traumatic events.