Citronelle Teens Narrowly Escape Injury as Gunfire Strikes Car on Prine Road

CITRONELLE, Ala. — Two 17-year-old boys from Citronelle escaped injury Monday night after gunfire struck the car they were riding in on Prine Road, leaving bullet holes in the trunk and rear windshield and narrowly missing both teens inside. One of the bullets passed through the vehicle and struck the rear-view mirror, just inches from where the two boys were sitting side by side.

The teenagers were on their way home when the shots rang out on a stretch of Prine Road west of downtown Citronelle, a small community in the northern reaches of Mobile County near the Washington County line. By the time the car reached safety, officers would find damage to the trunk and rear glass and a mirror pierced by a round that came within inches of the boys’ heads.

“So how close was them two boys sitting beside each other and six inches either way, we’d be having a different story,” said Draper Weaver, the father of one of the teenagers, who was riding in the passenger seat.

A Frightening Phone Call

Weaver said he was at home relaxing Monday night when he received a phone call from his son. “He said, ‘Hey, hurry up, hurry up. Somebody is shooting at us and we on the way home.’ I thought he was joking because me and him play a lot,” Weaver said. “I could hear it in his voice, how scared he was.”

The call, Weaver said, changed in an instant from a familiar bit of roughhousing between father and son to something genuinely alarming. He said the fear in the teenager’s voice told him this was no prank, and he left the house immediately to meet the boys.

According to Citronelle Police Chief Chris McLean, the teens reported that someone in another vehicle opened fire on them Monday night as they traveled on Prine Road. “They were traveling westbound on Prine Road from Highway 45 when they advised that they heard several gunshots,” McLean said. “They saw a vehicle behind them.”

Highway 45 is the main artery through Citronelle, running north and south between Mobile and the Mississippi line, and Prine Road carries local traffic through a residential area not far from the school and ball fields. Investigators have not said how many shots were fired in total, only that several rounds struck the car the boys were riding in.

Weaver believes the person in the other car may have followed his son and his friend after the teens stopped at a gas station. “They left the gas station,” Weaver said. “And as he got on Prine Road and was hit it and he got on Prine Road, it was headed home. He’s had a car. They noticed that same car got really close to him, behind him.”

Confrontation Near the Driveway

Weaver said the vehicle he believes was involved in the shooting pulled up near his driveway shortly after the gunfire. “I walked outside with my firearm, and they was flying down the driveway,” Weaver said. “And so I knew then how serious it was. And then when they pulled in, and they jumped out, ran inside, I kept going, I went inside, I got it, I got it, and I came out. I said, I’m out of my truck. And then the truck that was following in slow down at the road. And that’s how I knew. Why would you drive so fast? And how he didn’t come to a complete stop at my driveway.”

By the time Weaver reached the road, he said, the other vehicle had slowed and then pulled away. The boys made it inside the house, shaken but unhurt. Weaver said the close calls he later counted on the car — holes in the trunk, a shattered rear windshield and a bullet through the mirror — made the margin between a scare and a tragedy easy to measure in inches.

No one was injured in the shooting, but Chief McLean said the department is treating the case seriously given the broader climate of gun violence. “With the amount of gun violence that we have, you know, just within this state, within the United States, we take all these cases very serious when it comes to gunplay,” McLean said.

McLean’s caution reflects a reality facing police departments across Alabama, where shootings into homes and vehicles have become an increasing focus for investigators of all sizes of agencies. Under Alabama law, firing into an occupied vehicle is a serious felony, and convictions can bring substantial prison time even when no one is struck, a point prosecutors have emphasized in cases across the region in recent years.

Investigation Underway

Citronelle Police Department officials said they are investigating the shooting, which happened around 9:30 p.m. Monday as the two teens headed west on Prine Road. Officers recovered several rounds and shell casings from the scene, evidence investigators said will be processed as they work to identify the shooter and the vehicle involved.

Detectives are expected to canvass the area for additional witnesses and to check whether any homes or businesses along the route have security cameras that may have captured the other vehicle. Investigators will also likely review whether the same vehicle has been reported in other incidents. As of the latest update, no arrests have been made in connection with the shooting.

Police said the two teenagers are cooperating with investigators, and authorities have not released a description of the suspect vehicle beyond what the teens reported. Anyone who was in the area of Prine Road and Highway 45 around the time of the shooting and who may have seen the vehicles involved is being asked to contact the Citronelle Police Department.

Citronelle is located in Mobile County, and the Citronelle Police Department is asking anyone with information about the incident to come forward as the investigation continues. Tips about the identity of the shooter or the vehicle can make the difference in a case with no injured party, authorities noted, since victims’ accounts alone rarely identify a suspect. Residents who wish to remain anonymous can pass information along through regional tip lines that forward details to local investigators without revealing a caller’s name.

Prine Road shootings and similar incidents involving gunfire directed at occupied vehicles remain a serious concern for law enforcement agencies across South Alabama, and officials continue to urge residents with any information to contact investigators. Sheriff’s offices and municipal police departments in Mobile, Baldwin, Washington and Clarke counties have all handled comparable cases in recent years, and investigators say the combination of shell casings, vehicle damage and witness accounts often determines whether a suspect is ever charged.

In the meantime, Weaver said his family is grateful the boys were not hurt. The car can be repaired, he noted, but the memory of a late-night phone call from a son who believed someone was shooting at him will take longer to fade. For now, the family’s attention is on the investigation and on the hope that someone who saw the vehicle that night comes forward.

The incident left the neighborhood along Prine Road unsettled in the days that followed, with residents reporting unfamiliar vehicles to police and parents in the area reconsidering evening drives. In a city where most violent crime is rare enough to dominate conversation for weeks, a shooting aimed at a car carrying two teenagers struck a nerve, and officers spent the days after the incident fielding calls from residents hoping to help.

Investigators declined to discuss a possible motive, saying only that the inquiry was active. Whether the shooting was random, the result of a road dispute or something more targeted remains a question police have not answered publicly. What they have emphasized is that the evidence recovered from the scene — the rounds pulled from the car and the shell casings found along Prine Road — gives them physical material to test and compare as the investigation proceeds.

Shell casings, in particular, can matter in cases like this. Comparing them against firearms recovered in later arrests, and against national ballistics databases, is a standard step in shootings into occupied vehicles, where witnesses often see only a passing car at night. Detectives in cases across south Alabama have made arrests months after similar incidents based on that kind of laboratory work combined with tips from the public.

The Citronelle Police Department, a small municipal force serving the city and its surroundings in northern Mobile County, has assistance available when it needs it — the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office and other regional agencies can lend investigators and laboratory support in cases involving gunfire. Chief McLean has not said whether his department has requested outside help, but the seriousness with which he described the case suggested the department intends to pursue it fully.

For Weaver’s family, the practical question is what comes next on Prine Road. The boys have returned to their routines, he said, but the family is more watchful about the drive home, and he keeps the porch light on until they arrive. He said he hopes whoever was in the other vehicle that night is found before someone else’s child is in the path of their gunfire.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact the Citronelle Police Department or, for those who prefer to remain anonymous, the regional CrimeStoppers tip line, which passes details to investigators and, in cases that lead to arrests, pays cash rewards without revealing a caller’s identity.