Gunmen kill two, injure 12 in a shootout in a crowd in Alabama capital city’s downtown
Um, first of all, on behalf of City of Montgomery, I want to thank all of you for coming here for the work, uh, you’re doing, uh, to cover all the things that have been taking place in our city. I wanna thank our city council president Ci Yahon, uh, also Councilor Beer, Councilor Zymanski, uh, County Commissioner Constanza, um. sugar Cunting here. Sorry about that *** about my my contacts are. I thought that was you, um, but, uh, thank you for being here. That, that means *** lot. I appreciate that. Um, We wanna think everybody’s been helping us, uh, uh, partners with Lea, ATF, uh, FBI, all of our federal partners, Capitol Police, everybody’s been involved, and certainly, uh, we wanna thank the community, uh, for what, uh, they have been, uh, sharing with us and letting us know since, uh, these unfortunate circumstances. Um, I just wanna, uh, be very brief and I’ll turn it over to you, to you great boys and we’ll open it up for any questions that that you may have. Last night’s incident, uh, was unfortunate but it was certainly, uh, avoidable. Uh, it was an incident of bad judgment, uh, selfish behavior, um, and one that truly put the lives of many, many. Uh, innocent people are in danger. Uh, this weekend we have had thousands of people come, uh, to our city, uh, for things like the state fair, uh, for things like homecomings and other football games, uh, that we’ve had going on along with other events that have been going on around the city. 99.99% of people have been great. Uh, our community partners have been great. Our law enforcement has been. Uh, outstanding, uh, covering these events, uh, and covering things in the city, uh, our community has been great, uh, *** lot of great fun that has been had, uh, and shared, uh, along these last several days, uh, but unfortunately it only took, uh, one or two bad people with bad intentions, uh, to change not only their fortunes but the fortunes of Of many, many other innocent people, um, people who really should not have been caught in anything that, uh, took place and something again that, uh, we prepared for, talking with two great boys leading up to this weekend, talking about coverage. At the state fair talking about coverage uh at ASU’s Homecoming talking about coverage at the uh Morehouse Tuskegee Classic, uh, and talking about coverage in our neighborhoods for those who are just going about their, their day, um, our law enforcement officers were not off. Um, they’re encouraged not to be off, strongly encouraged, uh, they adhere to that. They sacrifice, they missed some ball games, they missed some birthdays, um, because they were protecting the serving this community, um, and even with that and having *** couple of units within, uh, *** short distance, um, we had something like this happen because of *** disagreement. Uh, because of something that again we believe, uh, could have been avoided and should have been. And I want the community to be well aware, uh, that for us this is not acceptable. Uh, we’re not gonna normalize this. Uh, we’re gonna do whatever we can not only to arrest those responsible, uh, we’re gonna do whatever we can to arrest those connected, um, in any way. Uh, who knew what may have happened or who knew what could take place. Um, we’re not going just to stop with those folks that, um, were pulling the trigger last night. Uh, for us it’s *** lot deeper than that because the impact is *** lot deeper than that. The impact is beyond those who are physically. Injured, those who are mentally and emotionally uh injured, those who are working downtown, uh, those who live downtown, those who do business uh and own businesses downtown, um. That’s *** problem for us. And so, uh, see great boys and I have been in talks, uh, consistently throughout the night, uh, about this issue, uh, this incident, and we’re gonna leverage all the resources, uh, and all the partnerships, uh, that we have to that. So I want us just to be, uh, very clear that this is not gonna be accepted here, uh, and we’re gonna look at every uh issue that we can, we’ll look at every ordinance that. We can talk to the city council about if we find some bad actors. Uh, then we’re gonna talk to them about that and that’s what their support which they’ve already, uh, agreed to, to give, uh, but we’re gonna look at everything that we can because this is not, uh, fit Montgomery, this is not who we are, this is not who we have been, um, when you have all the events going on that we had, uh, this weekend, uh, with *** lot of celebration, *** lot of economic impact, *** lot of goodwill. And support for charities, uh, Kiwanis Club, so many other organizations, um, that are doing good things. It is just, uh, to me, uh, very problematic that it only took one or two people *** few seconds, uh, to do something very stupid. Uh, and very dangerous, uh, that costs the lives of, of two people right now, uh, and may impact many, many others, uh, moving forward. And with that, I just want to say to the families, uh, we were praying for you since we heard about this. Uh, our church, uh, pray for the entire community. I know faith leaders who reached out to me, uh, all around this community. did so as well. We’re grateful uh for those prayers and we’re grateful for uh the actions uh as well of innocent people who came to help their neighbor who came to help people and strangers. They didn’t even know, uh, before this circumstance before this situation. So, um, we’re going to be in touch with those families and we’re gonna make sure those families understand um how much, uh, we grieve with them. Um, and we know that it may not be the same as, uh, someone who has lost that person, uh, who they were just talking to minutes or hours before and won’t have that opportunity again, uh, and for those that are injured, it may not. Necessarily have the same outcome but who have physical and mental scars, uh, that will have to be dealt with, uh, moving forward. So, uh, we’re gonna talk to them and I plan to reach out to them specifically myself and we’re gonna continue to make sure this is *** top line uh priority. Uh, not only for our city, but our community. And I think by looking at the leadership that we have here again across the city and across the county, uh, you can tell, uh, that this is all hands on deck and everybody’s on one accord to do whatever needs to be done, uh, to make sure we bring the criminals. To justice swiftly and that we make sure justice is served severely, uh, to send *** message that this is not gonna be accepted, uh, in Montgomery now or at any time moving forward. Uh, with that, I’ll turn over to Chief Rave voice to provide, uh, any, uh, facts and details, uh, and then I’ll come back and I’ll take questions, uh, and I’ll close it out with some other thoughts, uh, that we want to share as well. Chief. I’m collecting my thoughts right now because of how angry I am. So I’ll ask your forbearance as some of that might show through. Last night at 11:31. Our officers responded. The reports of shooting Shootings that they could hear. Over there at the corner of 5th and commerce Streets. As *** result of this incident, we now presently have 14 confirmed total victims of this shooting. Of those 14 confirmed victims. 2 have are deceased, 2 are no longer with us. 17 year old Jeremiah Morse. is unfortunately no longer with us. 43 year old Shalanda. Williams is no longer with us, both deceased from this incident. And of course, as I stated, there were 14 total victims. These two were among them. So of course, My feelings of anger and my heart is out there for their families. 5 of the victims. Have now life threatening. That’s where we are presently. 5 have life-threatening injuries. 7 have non life-threatening injuries. Breakdown on this that bothers me and every victim bothers me. I take it very personally. But this is of note. 7 of the victims are under the age of 20. The youngest of these victims is 16 years old. We know there are multiple calibers of ammunition used in this incident. We recovered multiple shell casings from multiple different weapons. We also recovered multiple weapons from the scene of this incident. We know that at least 2 of the victims, 2 of these 14 people were armed in this incident. This started As *** result of an individual, one of these 14. Who we believe was targeted. In which basically an exchange of gunfire. Erupted When that exchange erupted, Multiple people in the crowd, this is *** crowded area. Pull their own weapons. And started discharging. As you can imagine, that could be *** very chaotic situation. And every weapon has to be accounted for. And every piece of evidence has to be processed. Now, One thing I want to make perfectly clear. We are bringing every resource to bear. I’ve been in communication with multiple federal agencies from the ATF to the FBI to the US Attorney’s Office. I’ve been in communication with the US Marshals. My officers have been in communication with the Alabama Fusion Center. In communication with Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office. I’ve been in communication with Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. And of course we’ve been in communication with the Montgomery County DA’s office as well. I’m making this clear because every one of these agencies stands with us. And is working with us to pursue the individuals. Responsible. Now, One thing I want to make clear too. Is that purposefully, I will not release any information that I believe will compromise this investigation. So when we do open it up, I will answer questions as well as I can, but I want people to understand this investigation we are laser focused on. And we are not gonna let anything distract us. From going after the individuals responsible. I’ve been in communication with Crime Stoppers. And one thing I want people to be aware of, if anybody has any information. You have responsibility for this community and to help the people in this community to give that information to us. And I would ask people to call Crime Stoppers at 215O. That’s an area code 334. The number actually is 215-786-7. They are offering *** $5000 reward. Any information that leads to an arrest in this case. Now we have been questioning multiple individuals in relation to this case. As we piece this together, because we really have to reconstruct it. To know exactly what took place and to make sure that appropriate charges are brought. When we Make the charges. But I cannot emphasize enough. That we will pursue every avenue. Available to us and we’re doing it uns senselessly. I mean, I’m sorry, I’m not never ceasing. All of us have been up for hours and hours and hours, and I will tell you. We are not gonna stop until we get this case solved. If anybody has any video information. Or videos they believe that they have taken that will help us in this investigation. I’m going to give you all. An email address. It’s spelled star, center. At Montgomery AL.gov. Again, that is Star Center. At Montgomery AL.gov. My personal opinion. this was very, very much preventable because Individuals who pulled the trigger are responsible for this. They carried those weapons into this crowd. And at any time they could have walked away from this or walked away from whatever was happening, but they did not. And *** bullet On fire does not come back. Montgomery is *** good town full of fighters, full of good people. We will not tolerate this. I’ll guarantee you that. Thank you. I wanna make *** couple of clarification on my thing. Chiefly again all the men and women in Montgomery Police Department, um, Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, um, alcohol, tobacco, firearms, FBI, Capitol Police, DA’s office, everybody that, uh, has been *** part of this over these last several hours. also recognize some of the council members that were here. I know we had councilor member council members. Uh, Riley Johnson and Mitchell were also out there last night, uh, with the, with some of the families, uh, as well, so I want to recognize, uh, them, and again that’s about 3/4 of the council that was that has either been there or here. So it shows you again, level of involvement, level of seriousness and we’re taking this as *** city. Um, but I do wanna make *** couple of points of clarification I’ve seen in some early reporting. Uh, this was in no way related, uh, to the events that were happening. Uh, in the city was not related to Alabama State University’s Homecoming. Uh, I went to Alabama State University’s Homecoming. Uh, I had an opportunity to meet with community members, leaders, alumni, uh, fans, as well as the president, uh, and his staff, and, uh, board of trustee leaders. Great event, uh, fantastic for the city, and again, very few problems, uh, we had there. Uh, this was not connected in any way to Uh, the Morehouse Tuskegee Classic, uh, again, had the opportunity to, uh, talk with the community leaders, the president, uh, both institutions, corporate leaders, uh, Walmart and others, um. Great event, great crowd, um, really, really great feedback seeing people of all ages, uh, come out to, to witness what has been ***, uh, big weekend planned in our city for, um, several weeks. So I want to be clear that where this happened was not *** sanctioned party or gathering by any uh of those uh entities, um, either the HBCU classic Weekend. Uh, or Alabama State University’s homecoming or Morehouse Tuskegee’s homecoming whatsoever. Uh, that’s *** local place with local establishment and unfortunately, most of, uh, the victims, uh, as far as we know, uh, were local and unaffiliated, uh, with the institutions or, um, those, uh, activities that I mentioned. They were not connected to the Alabama State Fair. So, uh, again, *** lot of people are out there, uh, *** lot of preparation, *** lot of work, *** lot of sacrifice on behalf of dedicated, uh, law enforcement professionals, um, nothing out of the ordinary there. So, uh, I wanna, I wanna stress that because I think sometimes, uh, there’s *** lot of things out there in particularly on social media that potentially people try to, uh, craft and play detective. Uh, we’ve got. Great detectives here and throughout, uh, who are already on this and I just wanna make sure that’s clear so as not to besmirch any of those uh organizations uh that were doing so much, uh, and have done so much to great people here to our city. Um, second thing, you know, I, I wanna say. Is that um when you have people who are willing to, to, to draw, draw down uh in *** crowded area, that’s reckless uh and dangerous enough. Uh, when you have people who uh are willing to do that with police officers in plain sight, uh, within short, um, Distance, uh, I’m not sure if those people can be, uh, reaclimated to our society. Uh, I’m not sure that they can be productive citizens in our society. Uh, if you’re, if you’re that determined, um, to try to take someone’s life at the expense of, of others, I’m not sure those are the people that we can allow back uh into our society because the risk is just too great. Um, and I want to thank again our law enforcement professionals and everybody who helped us identify, uh, some suspects who helped us identify, uh, and apprehend, uh, some people who were, uh, close by, some people who had guns on them. Now I would have to be determined whether not those guns were uh connected to this crime, but certainly had guns on them. And we’re gonna find others, but when people are, are that reckless, uh, when it comes to uh human life, that’s *** problem, uh, and that’s *** problem that that’s gonna be *** lot deeper than what we’ll talk about at least here today, but it’s something that I think we have to talk about as *** community, we have to have some tough conversations uh around that. Who wants to be saved and who can be saved? Not everybody wants to be saved. And we have to find out who those people are, um, and we have to take things in our, uh, perspective to be proactive to protect this community. Too many good people here working hard, uh, doing great things to help this community prosper and move forward, uh, for it to be, um, just set on fire by people who are just committed to destruction. And committed to bringing about physical harm regardless of who it comes to, uh, because of their short-sighted emotions and how they deal with conflict and how they deal with disagreements. Con conflict and disagreements are as old as mankind. How we deal with it is the only thing that changed. And so it used to be *** time when somebody, there was *** disagreement, might be *** fist fight. I’m born and raised in Montgomery. I’ve seen plenty of them and it was that. And now we’re in this place where you don’t do that because everybody feels like they have to have *** gun. Everybody feels like this is wild wild west and so you lose innocent people over something very simple, uh, that could be worked out that even maybe without pushing and shoving could be de-escalated. And we have what we have now, innocent people uh who are harmed and many more who are impacted. So I just wanted to to mention that, uh, and then finally I want to say this $5000 isn’t enough to bring the cowards to justice. I put $20,000 on that, um, and we’re gonna make that $25,000 maybe 50. We had, we had another $25,000 from from our city council president, from the council. That’s here. Thank you. Thank all of you. Um, and this shouldn’t be about reward money. Uh, you should feel compelled to come forward because innocent people were harmed last night, um, and most, most, uh, were just in the, in the wrong place at the wrong time. Could have been any one of us. I was just you know, out of town at the weekend before. No different, um. And we gotta make sure that again we don’t accept this and so um I thank our city council for for just doing that. But $50,000 is what we’re where we’re gonna be right now, um, and we want those who know, uh, to come forward, not because you want the money, because you know it’s what’s right. Um, and you know it’s the right thing to do for people, uh, who should not have been in this situation that have been horrified and more importantly, to remove the people who are behind this. I wanna be very clear, we’re gonna see this all the way through, and if there’s legislation we need to change, we’ll change legislation. Uh, there are things we need to change in the bail and bond laws, and we’ll change the bail and bonds laws. Um, we’re not going to just sit here and Do the same thing over and over and over again. We’re not gonna do that. That’s not fair to the victims, it’s not fair to the families, it’s not fair to this community. Um, we’re just not gonna do that. So if we have to tie things up, and we have to take *** different position, then so be it. We’ll do that, but, uh, dangerous criminals and people who are this reckless uh with human life don’t deserve to be free. Uh they don’t deserve to walk our streets. Um, that, that’s not anything you are promised. That, that’s something that uh is an opportunity. As *** blessing. And if you can’t do that, then you don’t need to be on our streets, period. So with that I’ll open up uh for any questions you may have for myself, to great boys, um, and we’ll take them there. Chief Marty Roney Montgomery Advertiser, could you uh verify the name spellings of the deceased victims, please, sir? I’m sorry. Certainly, sir. Um, Jeremiah Morse is from the spelling I have at present, uh J E R E M I *** H, last name M O R R I S. And the other victim is Shalanda Williams, spelled S H *** L *** N D ***, last name W I L L I *** M S. Were they both Montgomery residents? Uh, at present we believe so. Um, All right. Any other questions? Do we have any indication of what led to the initial altercation? At present We know, like I stated earlier, one individual got targeted. And then an exchange of gunfire took place. We are still investigating the state, the motives and the reasons behind some of that. We do have leads coming in though that are helping us shape that, but I can’t say further than that because I, like I said before, I’m not gonna compromise anything because this is gonna be *** very complex investigation with multiple suspects when we finish it up. How many officers were working in the downtown area last night? I would have to refer to my worksheets, but I know that we have at least 5 in close proximity to this case. When you say close proximity, I mean I’m I’m talking within like running distance. OK, but like I stated, I, I would have to check if you want an exact number, but I can talk about the folks who responded to it and how fast they did and they were very fast on that. When the mayor said that there was an officer not 50 ft away, he was right. I’m gonna ask this question with an apology beforehand because I know how hard y’all been working and how nerves are wrong. But my editor told me to ask you, does this mean downtown Montgomery is unsafe? OK, can I answer that first, you get your thoughts. Let me say this. You know, I think when you get in *** car accident, you say driving is unsafe. You know, um, I, I, I don’t, I don’t think that, uh, downtown Montgomery is unsafe. Let me be very clear about that. Um, I think we have some reckless and careless people, uh, who did something very stupid last night that cost two people their lives and multiple people, uh, impacts on their lives from now until. Um, I think the investment in technology, uh, that we have, uh, increased this over the last several months, um, has proved beneficial. I think our police department chief great Boys outreach with Downtown Business Association has been productive. Uh, I think our conversations with major stakeholders, uh, in that area whether it’s the, uh, State Capitol Police. Uh, whether it’s those that assist with the retirement systems of Alabama’s, uh, buildings as well as our entrepreneurs and small business owners. There’s been *** great, great collaboration, uh, of teamwork and effectiveness there. Uh, the fact that we are having discussions right now in our city council about investing, uh, hundreds of millions of dollars to further grow downtown, uh, through tourism and things that benefit our city overall. Um, I think it’s an indication that Uh, we believe downtown, uh, it’s safe and again, I’ll go back to what I said before. You had thousands of people. Uh, who were, who were downtown. We had the investor Doctor Anthony Lee over at Huntingdon, uh, on Friday. I mean just *** great, I mean you couldn’t really ask to me for *** better weekend whether an activity uh involved to see people from all around coming uh through our city and coming through, uh, these spaces for different reasons at different times. What we had were, um, some individuals who decided that they were gonna put. Innocent lives at risk because of whatever issues or whatever disagreements or whatever conflicts they had, and I don’t think it would have mattered if it was on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or it was on the steps of the Capitol. I think that that was going to happen and what we have to do is we have to make sure that from our standpoint we send, we send *** strong message, *** direct message that this is not acceptable and if you do it in our city, you’re gonna pay *** heavy price. And you’re gonna pay *** heavy price and the public is gonna be aware of it. If it means making sure that there’s *** public example made of the people that are behind this, so be it. You just heard the city council that’s what we just said relates to uh this reward. This should not be about that, uh, as I said *** second ago, but if that’s what it takes to bring these people to justice, if it takes again of advocating to our judges, takes advocating to our legislature about some laws that need to be. about repeat violent offenders, even if it’s just in Montgomery County, then we’ll do whatever we have to do. So I don’t think that’s an indication on uh downtown. I think it’s an indication on the individuals who are responsible for this. This is not about uh the location. This is about the people involved, and this is about the recklessness and the decisions they made that have impacted many, many other people beyond themselves and they have to be held accountable for that. And we’re gonna do everything in our power to make sure they’re held accountable to it and to make sure other people understand just what that accountability costs, right? Because if you take two lives here. You impact as many as they have, again, it wouldn’t matter if it was around the corner from my house. The same thing should be, should apply that you ought to have *** level of respect and dignity for human life, that’s what being *** civilized society. Demands and if you can’t be in *** civilized society, you don’t need to be on our streets, period. And so this is not about um downtown, it’s about the individuals uh combined. Chiefre boys and I talked about technology from drones to cameras leading up to this. And again, by and large across the board, our partners in law enforcement. Our community has responded very, very well. Couldn’t be more proud uh of how this community embraced everything that that was going on here, um, all at one time. Uh, men and women in Montgomery Police Department, outstanding job. All of our partners, the law enforcement outstanding, um, and again, you got people that are from here to down this hall. And they’re willing to do something. I don’t know there’s anything, *** drone or camera or any other amount of men and women are gonna do, uh, but I also think that that will help us close this case very swiftly and I think the community’s partnership and the community’s interest, uh. In it, uh, will help as well. We got *** lot of great feedback, *** lot of offers of support, and those are people who don’t uh necessarily come downtown all the time, they don’t necessarily uh stay out past 9 or 10 o’clock, uh, but they know this is their community. And they have pride in their community. They want to make sure that we don’t let uh some people disrupt and destroy some of the things that too many people have put *** lot of time and effort and energy uh in doing. So, uh, I want to respond to that question because again I, I think it’s very. Very important for us to understand when we partner with our city, we partner with our county, uh, and our business owners and our faith leaders and grassroots leaders here is to serve everybody, wherever part of town that may be and unfortunately sometimes. People with bad intentions tend to go uh where innocent people are, but they have to pay *** price. They have to pay *** heavy price, and they have to pay it swiftly, and we need to make sure that they do that whatever the cost. And if $50,000 doesn’t get it, we’ll go out and we’ll get some more. But we’re gonna find the people who are behind this, and I promise you there will be some changes. There will be some changes because this is gonna be an example for some people. We’re not gonna keep coming back here having these press conferences because stupid people do stupid stuff that causes people’s lives. We’re not gonna keep doing that. They’re reckless and they’re dangerous, they don’t need to be on the streets. They don’t, they need to be somewhere where it doesn’t matter what they do, what they think about themselves because they should not have that impact on others. And so whatever that cost is, so be it. No, to follow up on that question, um, is it responsible for the city of Montgomery to continue to bring thousands of people in when even though these weren’t related, it wasn’t related to anything, you still have the Ferris wheel right around the block from where this happened, and we have low numbers of police officers they’re doing the best they can. I understand that, but. 5 officers, you know, for an area that large, it, it seems like *** low number. I mean, do we need to Not bring events like this into the city until we have more officers. I’ll let you get to the the manpower uh issues. I’m not sure how many people are are are knowing down on that shift, uh, at that time. Uh, but no, I, I think the city of Montgomery, we, we, we can walk and chew gum at the same time. Uh, we’re *** city that, you know, really has tremendous pride, um, in what we do and, you know, uh. I didn’t get *** chance to go out to the fair yet. I was looking forward and looking forward to getting out there, but I go out there every year. The thing that I’m always impressed about from the time I was growing up here, uh, is what the Kiwanis Club, uh, does for so many people, uh, not just in our city. But in our area and I say that because the fair is *** big part of uh bringing in funds and revenue. That’s *** big operation that our police department and uh sheriff’s department, so many folks work hard on year round. And to have that along with uh Alabama State University’s homecoming, to have that along with, you know, having dignitaries in town for Huntington Colleges, uh, presidential investiture. To have that along with the uh Morehouseki Classic is something that um our men and women in law enforcement are trained to do. Uh, they are committed to do it and I think for them and and our partners, uh, there’s been *** great amount of collaboration. Uh, with our, uh, partners in law enforcement and also the community. Uh, we’ve got retired law enforcement officers, um, point out things to me, uh, and tell me different things and it’s great. Uh, we’ve had people, I’ve had people call and text me, uh, who are retired, uh, to talk about things they’re seeing in their neighborhood and their community at an event, um, so we always have additional eyes and ears, um, in. Uh, when we’re doing things like this, and I think when you have the type of working relationship that’s not transactional, that really is about working with um Uh, Capitol Police, uh, Alabama Law enforcement, uh, agency that’s also, uh, working with our federal partners because we’re in constant contact with them, uh, I think it makes these type of events, uh, certainly not only possible, uh, moving forward, but I think it encourages us. Um, the fact that, you know, again I, I, I know that the number you mentioned, uh, that you brought up before, um. You know, these are people who listen, this could have been much worse. Um, these are people who have no regard for how many law enforcement officers we have, um, they they’re, they’re that type of, of, of individual and I think for us to have uh the sheriff of our county here to have our police chief here again it shows the collaboration, it shows the working relationship. Uh, that we have that doesn’t matter about jurisdictional roles to have our city council, our county commission partners here. It doesn’t matter. We all live here. Uh, we all want to see, uh, this community thrive whether it’s *** concert or whether it’s *** race on the river, uh, what’s *** 5K for charity, uh, it doesn’t matter. We want to see those things, uh, take place and I feel very confident and felt confident. Uh, going in, uh, to this weekend that we were more than prepared, uh, and that we were ready to handle, uh, just about anything that would come up and Chief and I probably talked, um, several times throughout the week, uh, several times on Friday, and then *** couple more times, even yesterday, uh, about just kind of where things were, and I wanna say this, the act of one or two individuals coming back to your point, um. Doesn’t cloud the entire community. Community has been great. Community has been helpful, has been outgoing, very, very supportive across the city, uh, and, and we commend them for that, and they have responded. Uh, you’ve got some of the messages I’ve gotten to not approving and not liking what’s happening and not gonna settle for that as well. They’re as angry as we are. Uh, and I appreciate that because they understand what we’re doing in this city and in this region and they understand what so many folks uh around the walls and those that are here, uh, in our community do to try to bring events, uh, to downtown to other parts of Montgomery, uh, so that you know you can win with your family, you can align with your friends, you can’t invite, uh, people here and I wanna say it’s not let it uh give final marks on the manpower thing. You know, um, if what happened here only happened here, I might be concerned. Um, and although I’m concerned about why this happened, uh, I know enough and I talked to enough mayors around the state and enough mayors around the country to know that we all deal with it. It’s all it’s our worst nightmare probably short of *** law enforcement officer or *** first responder, um, having something serious happen to them. Uh, no one wants to have the term mass shooting. Uh, affiliated with their community, uh, and we all talk about that consistently about how you prepare, how you plan, and then how do you respond. And I think the fact that we put so much time, effort, and energy in that, uh, not only helped us within two hours, uh, corro some people who, uh, they don’t have some ties to this. They have some ties to something bad to happen. Uh, I can promise you that they’re not just innocent bystanders. Because of that planning, preparation and response. So I think we’re more than capable of being able to. Handle events like this and others. Uh, we’ve done it with Buckmasters. Uh, we do it with, uh, the salute the Veterans Bowl. We do it with concerts. We do other events here all the time with the help of everybody, uh, that’s in this room, and I’m proud to be able to work with all of them, uh, in various capacities to get those things done. We’ll continue to do that. We don’t gonna let one or two bad apples, uh, spoil *** bunch, we’re gonna find those that are rotten and we’ll get them the hell out of here. I, I’d like to address something here and I want to clarify. When I was stating that there were 5 within, you say walking distance, that doesn’t, that number did not include the folks who also responded in their vehicles. As the mayor just alluded, we had one officer who was so quick on the scene, he was transporting *** victim before. You can say the ambulances got there. The response was so quick, OK, we were taking people. And do investigative, you could say custody short distance away. Yeah I, I, while I can’t tell you how fast I got here, I know I got here pretty fast and this response of our units and our officers. This was not *** manpower issue. We had plenty of manpower. We had darn Aaliyah out there, ATF, other federal partners, Sheriff’s department. I mean, we had *** huge response on this and very quick response. It’s something you got to understand with these types of situations. When you know how fast the magazine can be emptied out of *** handgun, an automatic handgun, that incident might have only taken 1 or less than 60 seconds. So this was an issue and, and one thing I think we all have to be aware of. And I think we don’t need anybody. Misinforming the public. This is an issue. Of the individuals who pull those triggers. They pull those triggers. They hurt those people. That’s who’s at fault in this, and that’s who we’re going after. And we can’t let as *** community, as *** police department, as law enforcement officers, we cannot let anything sway us or distract us from that purpose. Our response on this was very timely and we bought *** lot of force to bear. But when you have these many individuals get shot, And you have this type of crime scene. You have to do everything right. Because you only get really one chance at that prosecution. And we’re gonna do everything we can and we are thankful to all of the the law enforcement partners who showed up last night, who are showing up today and who are helping us because we are utilizing like I stated, every resource. And I’m proud of my detectives and the work that they are doing. I have full confidence in their abilities. And I’m so thankful. That we can work together as *** team to go after these bad actors do not. Forget who’s responsible for the shootings. And it’s the people who pull those triggers, not just here but anywhere, but that’s who’s responsible for this. And my um Attorney General Steve Marshall and commenting about about the shooting, he, he said, uh. He said, I don’t know the exact quote, but something about he’s concerned about this what he called the stubborn refusal of officials in Montgomery to acknowledge there’s *** serious crime problem here. Do you, Mayor, do you have any response to, to what he said? I don’t know that there, um, one could look at our record uh objectively and what we’ve done with our city council, uh, and say that um there’s *** refusal to acknowledge crime is an issue, uh, in the city of Montgomery. Uh, I don’t know *** major city in the state, and I work with all the mayors in this state that would say that crime is not an issue. Uh, in this city. I think if you look at our budget, if you look at the amount of money that we have put into technology that we have put into our first responders, that we have put into recruiting and retaining the very best and brightest, uh, in law enforcement, the type of people that we bring in, casting, uh, wide net, bringing back. Uh, part-time officers, uh, really acclimated to keep great boy suggestions about addressing, uh, issues around manpower, uh, talking to our share, uh, about great ideas he has about debt programs getting people in that pipeline. Uh, working, uh, with uh community violence, uh, intervention program, funding also violence prevention with the council’s approval, working with our nonprofit, uh, leaders, faith leaders, grassroots leaders, um, I, I don’t know how one could really Uh, make that statement and, and see what we have been doing here, uh, over the last 6 years. I think it’s very easy, um, to, to sit back while you’re watching college football, um, and talk about something you don’t know about. Attorney General wants to talk to me about what we’ve been doing. I’d be more than happy to sit with him. I’ll go to him, uh, to tell him exactly what we’ve been doing. Um, but I don’t need anybody lecturing me about crime. I’ve had *** gun pointed in my face, um, and I’ll never forget. I wasn’t the mayor then, and these people last night won’t never forget what happened to them. Uh, and so, you know, I don’t, I don’t need that type of sideline, uh, commentary, uh, from the state’s top law enforcement official. I need solutions and he’s willing to offer some solutions around bail and bar reform, I’m open. We’ve been talking about that for several years. We’re gonna offer some solutions, uh, around issues around permitless caring. I’m open. We’ve been talking about that for several years. So, you know, we’ve done more than our part. Uh, we have uh engaged community partners that has helped us lower crime in this city, um, you know, over 26, 27%. Um, and we want that number to be 100%. We’re not complacent with that. Uh, we’re not stubborn to the facts that people handle disagreements very poorly, which result in why we’re here today. But to say that there’s been *** refusal, uh, it’s just ***. Lack of awareness, lack of information or education, uh, but I’d be more than happy uh to talk with him or his staff about what we’ve been doing and to talk about ways that we can collaborate, uh, not only to make Montgomery safer, but to make the state of Alabama safer. Come here. I’m sorry. We spoke about the police force’s new drones at *** press conference recently, and we saw them up in the air last night. How are they assisting specifically in this case? Drones can be utilized in so many ways, not only just for visualizing or chasing suspects if you’re in *** like *** hot pursuit, uh, they can also be utilized to map areas, and when you map areas, it helps you better locate evidence. As I stated before, we are in the process of reconstructing everything because that is what’s going to lead us to *** successful prosecution. So drones are utilized in so many different ways that we were really glad to be utilizing them last night. In fact, the ones you saw life are our allies at Aliya because they had specialized things that they could do with us. So that’s why I’m saying we are working hand in hand with all of the other law enforcement agencies. Um, so we are definitely gonna utilize every resource we have on this. So thank you for your questions.
Gunmen kill two, injure 12 in a shootout in a crowd in Alabama capital city’s downtown
Updated: 7:35 PM EDT Oct 5, 2025
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Rival gunmen shot at each other in a crowded downtown nightlife district in Alabama’s capital city Saturday night, killing two people and injuring 12 others in a chaotic street scene that left authorities trying to find out who started it, police said.The dead included a 43-year-old woman, identified by police as Shalanda WIlliams, and a 17-year-old identified as Jeremiah Morris. Five of the wounded were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, including a juvenile, Montgomery police said.No one had been arrested as of Sunday afternoon as police appealed to the public for information and sorted through a complicated crime scene that involved multiple people firing weapons in a crowd just after the Tuskegee University-Morehouse College rivalry football game ended blocks away.“We’re gonna do whatever we can not only to arrest those responsible, we’re going to do whatever to arrest those connected in any way, who knew what may have happened, who knew what could take place,” Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed told a Sunday news conference. “We’re not going just to stop with those folks that were pulling the trigger last night.”The shooters “had no regard for human life,” he said.Police were reviewing surveillance video, interviewing witnesses and potential suspects and trying to piece together a motive for why the shooting started.Police were called around 11:30 p.m. to what Montgomery Police Chief James Graboys described as a “mass shooting” that broke out near the Hank Williams Museum, the Rosa Parks Museum and the Alabama Statehouse, within earshot of officers on routine patrol in downtown Montgomery.The shooting began when someone targeted one of the 14 victims, prompting multiple people to pull their own weapons and start firing back, Graboys said.”This was two parties involved that were basically shooting at each other in the middle of a crowd,” Graboys said.The shooters, he said, “did not care about the people around them when they did it.”Seven of the 14 victims were under 20, and the youngest was 16, Graboys said. At least two of the victims were armed, Graboys said.Multiple weapons and shell cases were recovered from the scene, Graboys said.Few other details were available.It was a particularly busy weekend in Montgomery, with Alabama State University’s homecoming football game that day at Hornet Stadium, the Alabama National Fair ongoing at Garrett Coliseum and the Tuskegee University-Morehouse College game having just ended at nearby Cramton Bowl.Reed said there were police patrols within 50 feet (15 meters) when the shooting broke out. One officer was so quick to arrive on the scene that he transported a victim to the hospital before an ambulance arrived, Graboys said.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. —
Rival gunmen shot at each other in a crowded downtown nightlife district in Alabama’s capital city Saturday night, killing two people and injuring 12 others in a chaotic street scene that left authorities trying to find out who started it, police said.
The dead included a 43-year-old woman, identified by police as Shalanda WIlliams, and a 17-year-old identified as Jeremiah Morris. Five of the wounded were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, including a juvenile, Montgomery police said.
No one had been arrested as of Sunday afternoon as police appealed to the public for information and sorted through a complicated crime scene that involved multiple people firing weapons in a crowd just after the Tuskegee University-Morehouse College rivalry football game ended blocks away.
“We’re gonna do whatever we can not only to arrest those responsible, we’re going to do whatever to arrest those connected in any way, who knew what may have happened, who knew what could take place,” Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed told a Sunday news conference. “We’re not going just to stop with those folks that were pulling the trigger last night.”
The shooters “had no regard for human life,” he said.
Police were reviewing surveillance video, interviewing witnesses and potential suspects and trying to piece together a motive for why the shooting started.
Police were called around 11:30 p.m. to what Montgomery Police Chief James Graboys described as a “mass shooting” that broke out near the Hank Williams Museum, the Rosa Parks Museum and the Alabama Statehouse, within earshot of officers on routine patrol in downtown Montgomery.
The shooting began when someone targeted one of the 14 victims, prompting multiple people to pull their own weapons and start firing back, Graboys said.
“This was two parties involved that were basically shooting at each other in the middle of a crowd,” Graboys said.
The shooters, he said, “did not care about the people around them when they did it.”
Seven of the 14 victims were under 20, and the youngest was 16, Graboys said. At least two of the victims were armed, Graboys said.
Multiple weapons and shell cases were recovered from the scene, Graboys said.
Few other details were available.
It was a particularly busy weekend in Montgomery, with Alabama State University’s homecoming football game that day at Hornet Stadium, the Alabama National Fair ongoing at Garrett Coliseum and the Tuskegee University-Morehouse College game having just ended at nearby Cramton Bowl.
Reed said there were police patrols within 50 feet (15 meters) when the shooting broke out. One officer was so quick to arrive on the scene that he transported a victim to the hospital before an ambulance arrived, Graboys said.
