Dadeville High School to host Phil Dowdell memorial in auditorium

Dadeville High School to host Phil Dowdell memorial in auditorium

Dadeville High School officials announced senior Philstavious “Phil” Dowdell’s memorial will be held in the school’s auditorium April 24.

Dowdell, 18, was one of four people killed April 15 at his younger sister’s Sweet 16 birthday party at a dance hall in Dadeville.

Students will learn virtually the day of the memorial service.

A homecoming celebration for Shaunkivia Nicole “KeKe” Smith, 17, who was also shot and killed at the party, will be held Saturday, April 29, at 1 p.m.

Also killed were Marsiah Emmanuel “Siah” Collins, 19, of Opelika, and Corbin Dahmontrey Holston, 23, of Dadeville.

Thirty-two people were injured. Many of them were young people from towns including Alex City, Pike Road, Tallassee, Tuskegee and beyond. Some are recovering from serious injuries and surgery.

Dowdell’s mother, LaTonya Allen, told reporters that she didn’t know how the shooting happened, but that she knew her son was gone once she saw him on the floor surrounded by blood.

“My daughter was kneeling beside him. He was trying to say something to her but he couldn’t,” she said.

Dadeville High School Principal Chris Hand in his 11th year as principal and 27th year as an educator, said nothing in his tenure had prepared him to guide a school and community through the aftermath of a mass shooting.

He said Dowdell and Smith were both successful students and athletes.

“They were just superior athletes, superior students, they wanted to do the best and they wanted the best for the school.”

Dowdell had committed to play football at Jacksonville State and also was a star track athlete and state champion.

“As good a football, basketball and track athlete as he was, he was just as good a person. He always worked hard, was humble .. all the time. He hung on every word the coaches gave him. Whatever you told him, he trusted it and did everything you asked him to do,” high school football coach Roger McDonald said.

Guns are the leading cause of death for children in the country and in Alabama.

Four people have been arrested and each were charged with four counts of reckless murder as of Thursday. The investigation into the deadly shooting is ongoing, led by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

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