Multiple rounds of gunfire rang out from a neighborhood just blocks away from Selma High School's homecoming football game in Selma, Alabama, Friday night, sending coaches scrambling to get their players flat on the ground and prompting Selma's brand-new police chief to shut the game down at halftime. No one at Memorial Stadium was hurt, but the scare rattled a city still on edge from a deadly shooting earlier this month.
The homecoming matchup between Selma High School and Demopolis High School was underway at Memorial Stadium on Dallas Avenue when the gunshots echoed from a nearby neighborhood, according to Black Belt News Network. Selma High coaches instructed their players to lie down on the field as the shots echoed, while Demopolis players ran off the field. The gunfire came shortly after a temporary power failure had already plunged the stadium into darkness, though police clarified that the lighting outage and the off-site shooting were entirely unrelated incidents.
Selma Police Chief Ettice Brickus made the call to cancel the game at halftime as a safety precaution, according to the outlet's report, with police confirming the gunfire happened several blocks from the stadium and caused no injuries at the game itself. WSFA reported that an investigation remains underway and that, per the police chief, there were no reported injuries and no incidents at the game. Anyone with information has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers at 334-215-7867, with tips encouraged to be submitted anonymously, per the station's report.
A Chief Barely a Week Into the Job
Friday's halftime decision landed on Brickus just over a week after she took command of the Selma Police Department. She was ceremonially sworn in on October 8, becoming the first Black woman to lead the department, following a 5–3 appointment vote by the Selma City Council on September 3, the same outlet's report on her swearing-in noted. Before coming to Selma, she served as deputy chief and chief of staff for the Montgomery Police Department and retired as a deputy chief from the Baltimore Police Department, a background detailed in coverage of her appointment.
Her first major public test came against a backdrop of recent violence in the city. Less than two weeks before the homecoming game, on October 3, Selma police responded to a triple fatal shooting at 405 Highland Avenue, a case Hoodline previously reported took place at the site of a prior 2024 mass shooting and underscored severe public safety concerns in the city just as Brickus was taking office.
A City Already Grappling With Gun Violence
The homecoming scare and the recent homicide fit into a broader pattern of gun violence that has long troubled Selma and the surrounding county. According to FBI Uniform Crime Reporting data compiled for 2025 and cited by SpotCrime, Selma recorded a violent crime rate of 720.8 per 100,000 residents, compared with a national average of roughly 359 per 100,000. Dallas County, which includes Selma, recorded the highest rate of gun violence among all 67 Alabama counties in 2019, according to data cited in a federal law enforcement grant profile compiled by the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
Friday's incident also echoes concerns around high school homecoming events. Sports Illustrated reported that six people died in an October 2025 homecoming-related shooting and that a game was canceled in Texas.
