Marsiah “Si” Collins was a 19-year-old aspiring musician who was looking forward to attending LSU in the fall, where his father is also pursuing a law degree.

But Collins’ family is mourning his loss today after he was one of the four people shot to death Saturday night in Dadeville. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said 28 people were wounded in the incident that erupted at a 16th birthday party.

Philstavious “Phil” Dowdell, a Dadeville football player who had recently committed to Jacksonville State University, and Keke Nicole Smith, a senior at Dadeville High School, have been identified as two of the four victims.

Collins’ father, Martin Collins, said his son, a former defensive end at Opelika High School, graduated in 2022 and took a year off to focus on his music career. Just last week, Martin made arrangements to have his son move in this fall with him.

“I don’t know what to say about this situation,” Collins said. “He messaged me on April 5 telling me he was ready to leave.”

Martin described his son as a quiet presence, but a “funny kid” who loved to laugh.

“He was a great big brother to his sisters,” he said. “He was a funny, charismatic kid who loved to light up a room. He had a lot of my mom’s personality. He could do that just being in a house.”

Martin, who lives in Louisiana, said he learned early Sunday morning that Marsiah was one of the victims.

“From Saturday night, I didn’t sleep at all until midday yesterday, because I just couldn’t believe it. I still can’t believe it. I can’t accept it,” he said.

Martin said his son grew up in a two-parent household. Martin served in Iraq with the Marine Corps, graduated from Samford, and said Marsiah was a honor student.

“Everything I’ve done in my life was to show my son it can be done, and to give him a positive role model to follow,” he said. “There’s been some crap on Twitter trying to make my son look like a thug, because he was making a music video with a gun that wasn’t even real. They’re trying to make this narrative that he was a thug and was responsible for his own death. He didn’t know anything about no street life.”

With more than a day going by without any word of suspects in the shooting, Martin said he can’t help but wonder who was responsible, and the circumstances.

“I’ll graduate from law school next year,” he said. “People say guns don’t kill people. If people kill people, and we have an influx of guns around this country, then we have a people problem. We have a problem with people having access to guns. I saw a picture of a bullet that went through the building. That gun had to be high caliber.”