A 20-year-old Selma woman was killed early Sunday morning after someone opened fire at the entrance of a nightclub with a high-powered rifle.

Shykereya Leggett, who Selma Police Chief Spencer Collier said was an innocent bystander, was shot in the head at Prime Ultra Lounge on South Maxey Street just before 2 a.m. A 31-year-old man was also shot in the leg, but his injury was non-life threatening.

“What this appears to be unfortunately is another incident of territorial gang fighting that leads to innocent people dying,” Collier said.

“Two innocent people that played no role whatsoever in their childish gang disagreements that they have were just at a bar having a good time, and unfortunately one is dead­­, the mother of a child.”

Collier said Leggett was transported to Vaughan Regional Medical Center in preparation to be airlifted to Tuscaloosa, but she was pronounced dead after medics could not find a pulse.

The gunfire started after a fight inside the nightclub a few minutes earlier. Collier said an officer was responding to a disorderly call around 1:47 a.m., and while on the way to the club, another call came in for shots fired at the same location.

Collier said security broke up the fight and got the aggressors out of the club, but it appears they didn’t leave. Collier said they found a dark, secluded area around 25 yards from the club’s entrance and waited for people to exit the building before opening fire.

“To lay in wait just like cowards and just start firing at who exits the building, it’s just one of the most cowardly acts I’ve ever seen. It’s just cowardice. They ought to be ashamed of themselves,” Collier said. “It’s unfair to the people of Selma, it’s unfair to her and it’s unfair to her family.”

Collier described the scene as chaotic once the gunfire started.

“It was a chaotic scene. Thirty rounds from a 7.62 mm rifle fired into the entrance area of a bar would generate a chaotic scene,” he said, “We recovered upwards of 30 shell casings of 7.62 rifle caliber, which indicates to me they emptied a magazine.”

Collier said he was sad for the family but angered by what he called an act of cowardice from the shooter or shooters.

“We believe we know which gangs were involved, where their geographical locations are, and it is our commitment to find them,” Collier said. “It is our priority to find them and put them in jail.”

No arrests have been made so far. Anyone with information is asked to call the Selma Police Department.

Leggett’s death marks the ninth homicide in Selma/Dallas County for 2017 and the second within just six days.