Attorneys for the man charged with capital murder in the 2019 death of Mobile Police Officer Sean Tuder argued in a Mobile County courtroom this week that their client should be shielded from prosecution entirely, telling a judge the shooting was an act of self-defense against a man he did not know was a police officer.
The pretrial evidentiary hearing, held Wednesday, centered on a defense motion seeking immunity for 21-year-old Marco Perez under Alabama’s self-defense statute. Perez is charged in the Jan. 20, 2019, shooting death of Tuder, 30, a Mobile police officer who was killed while attempting to serve an arrest warrant near an apartment complex on Leroy Stevens Road.
According to court filings, defense attorneys argued Perez had no way of knowing the man approaching him was a police officer, because Tuder was off duty, out of uniform and driving an unmarked vehicle at the time. The motion states Tuder had arranged with a confidential informant to pose as a relative offering Perez a ride, a plan investigators say was meant to help Tuder get close enough to serve the outstanding warrant without a confrontation.
“Perez was unaware the CI had contacted a police officer and that Tuder was an officer posing as a relative of the CI to give Perez a ride,” the defense motion states. “Perez was expecting the private vehicle to be his ride. When Perez saw the non-police private vehicle, he approached the vehicle on the passenger side to get in his expected ride.”
Defense attorneys say that as Perez neared the car, Tuder got out and drew his firearm, prompting Perez to back away and raise his hands. A struggle then broke out between the two men, according to the motion, before shots were fired. Portions of the encounter were captured on nearby surveillance video, but investigators have said the shooting itself happened just out of the camera’s frame, leaving the exact sequence of the final moments in dispute.
Defense attorneys also pointed to testimony from a witness at an earlier hearing who said he was close enough to hear the confrontation and never heard Tuder identify himself as a law enforcement officer before the gunfire. Prosecutors have not publicly disputed that account, though the case remains under a gag order that has limited public comment from both sides.
Tuder had been assigned to investigate Perez for months before the shooting and had coordinated with a supervisor and requested backup before heading to the apartment complex, according to Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Battiste. Investigators have said they have not ruled out the possibility that Perez recognized Tuder from prior encounters, a detail that could weigh heavily on whether the self-defense immunity claim succeeds. Officials have also confirmed that other officers responding to the scene were not immediately aware Tuder had been shot, though it remains unclear exactly how or when that was discovered.
Tuder was rushed to Providence Hospital in a police cruiser but died from his injuries. Police have never disclosed publicly where on his body Tuder was struck or how many times he was shot, citing the ongoing prosecution.
Alabama’s self-defense immunity law allows a judge to dismiss criminal charges before trial if the defense can show by a preponderance of the evidence that the use of force was legally justified, sparing the defendant from having to stand trial at all. A ruling in Perez’s favor would end the case outright; a denial would send the matter toward a capital murder trial, where a conviction could carry a sentence of life in prison or death.
The Mobile County District Attorney’s Office was contacted about Wednesday’s hearing but declined to comment, citing the gag order that has been in place to help preserve an impartial jury pool as the case has moved through pretrial proceedings. It remains unclear when the presiding judge is expected to rule on the immunity request.
Tuder’s death marked the second time in less than a year that the Mobile Police Department lost an officer in the line of duty, following the February 2018 death of Officer Justin Billa. His killing drew condolences from state and federal officials and prompted a wave of community fundraising for his family. The case has continued to draw attention in Mobile as it winds through the courts more than two years after the shooting.