Mobile police are investigating after a man was found with severe lacerations at Ryan Park early Thursday, allegedly after being struck by a brick.
Officers with the Mobile Police Department arrived at the park at about 1:10 a.m. and found a man with severe injuries. The victim was taken to a hospital for treatment. Investigators determined that a male subject had struck the victim with the brick, according to the department, which described the case as an active investigation. No arrest had been announced and no charges had been filed in the brick attack as of the following morning.
Assault by pipe on Government Street
The brick case was one of several assaults on the department’s report that day. In another, a Mobile man was arrested after allegedly assaulting a man with a pipe on the 1800 block of Government Street.
That incident began on Monday, June 29, when officers responded to the 2600 block of Harbor Drive at around 2 p.m. regarding an assault. The victim suffered minor injuries and told police that a known male subject had hit him with a pipe.
Investigators located 64-year-old Anthony Stallworth through the course of the investigation and arrested him. He was transported to the Mobile Metro Jail and charged with second-degree assault, a felony that covers serious physical injury caused by a dangerous instrument — a category pipes and bricks both fall into.
When a blunt object becomes a felony
Under Alabama law, second-degree assault carries up to 10 years in prison, and prosecutors can pursue the charge when a victim suffers serious physical injury or when a deadly or dangerous weapon is used. Simple assaults involving fists typically stay misdemeanors; the introduction of a brick, pipe or similar object raises the stakes significantly, as does the severity of the injury.
The difference matters for the Ryan Park case as well. If investigators identify and charge the brick attacker, the severity of the victim’s injuries — described as severe lacerations requiring hospitalization — would likely determine whether the case is charged as second-degree assault or upgraded further.
Parks and late-night safety
Ryan Park, in the heart of Mobile’s midtown area, is normally a daytime space — playgrounds, ball fields and picnic tables. Violent incidents there after midnight are rare enough that they draw immediate attention from the neighborhood, and police have not said whether the victim and attacker knew each other.
The department asks anyone with information about either case to call Mobile Police at 251-208-7211 or submit an anonymous tip through mobilepd.org/crimetip. Stallworth is presumed innocent unless proven guilty; the man in the brick case has not been identified.