Mobile County Sheriff’s Office: Man Shot Twice in Whistler-Area Apartment Complex, Warrant Issued for Suspect

The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office says one man was shot twice Saturday afternoon at an apartment complex in the Whistler area after a verbal dispute between neighbors escalated into gunfire, and a warrant has now been issued for the man accused of pulling the trigger.

What Deputies Say Happened

According to the sheriff’s office, deputies responded at approximately 1:22 p.m. on Aug. 29 to 2104 Wolf Ridge Road, the address of Ridge Manor Apartments, following a report that someone had been shot. Arriving deputies found the victim, identified as Kelvin Pettway, suffering from one gunshot wound to the chest and one to the thigh. Mobile County EMS responded to the scene and transported Pettway to USA Hospital for treatment.

Detectives with the Major Crimes Unit responded to the apartment complex to lead the investigation. According to the sheriff’s office, the victim was interviewed at the hospital and told investigators that a verbal altercation had broken out with a man identified as Jimmy Napier, who also lives in the apartment complex.

How the Confrontation Turned Violent

Deputies say that during the argument, Napier retreated into his own apartment before returning armed with a handgun. According to the sheriff’s office, Napier then discharged two rounds at the victim, striking him once in the chest and once in the upper leg, before fleeing the scene. Investigators say Napier has not been located since the shooting, and several witnesses at the apartment complex have been interviewed as part of the ongoing investigation.

The sheriff’s office says the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office was consulted following the investigation, resulting in a warrant issued for Napier on a charge of Assault First Degree, Alabama’s most serious assault charge, typically reserved for cases involving serious physical injury caused with a deadly weapon or under circumstances demonstrating extreme indifference to human life.

Search for the Suspect Continues

A Be On the Lookout, or BOLO, alert has been issued to surrounding law enforcement agencies for Napier, a standard step in cases where a suspect flees before deputies can make an arrest. BOLO alerts allow neighboring police departments and sheriff’s offices to be on alert for a wanted individual who may attempt to cross jurisdictional lines to avoid capture, broadening the search beyond the immediate area where a crime occurred.

The sheriff’s office says the victim’s injuries, while significant, appear to be non-life-threatening at this time. Officials have not released additional details about the nature of the dispute between the two men beyond describing it as a verbal altercation that escalated when Napier retrieved a firearm from his residence.

A Pattern Familiar to Investigators

Shootings that stem from disputes between neighbors or acquaintances, rather than random violence, represent a significant share of gun violence cases investigated by sheriff’s offices and police departments nationally. Cases where a suspect retreats to retrieve a weapon before returning to confront a victim, as deputies describe happening in this incident, are treated with particular seriousness by prosecutors, since the pause for a suspect to arm themselves can undercut claims of an impulsive, purely reactive use of force — a distinction that can matter significantly once a case moves through the court system.

The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office says its investigation remains active and is asking anyone with information about Jimmy Napier’s whereabouts to contact the sheriff’s office or Mobile County Crime Stoppers. Investigators have not said whether additional charges may be added as the Major Crimes Unit’s investigation continues.

Understanding Alabama’s Assault Charges

Alabama law separates assault charges into multiple degrees based largely on the severity of injury and the circumstances of the attack. Assault First Degree, the charge issued against Napier, is generally reserved for cases involving serious physical injury inflicted with a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument, or assaults committed under circumstances demonstrating extreme indifference to human life. That places the alleged conduct described by deputies — retrieving a firearm during an argument and firing twice at the victim — squarely within the conduct the statute is designed to address, distinguishing it from lower-degree assault charges that typically apply to less severe injuries or altercations not involving a weapon.

Investigators’ decision to consult with the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office before securing a warrant reflects standard practice in serious violent crime cases, where prosecutors and law enforcement typically coordinate closely on charging decisions to ensure a case is built on a legal foundation likely to hold up as it proceeds through the court system, rather than filing charges hastily before an investigation is complete.

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The Search for a Suspect Who Fled

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Cases where a suspect flees the scene before an arrest can be made often extend well beyond the initial incident, sometimes remaining open for weeks or months as investigators follow up on tips generated by BOLO alerts and public appeals for information. The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office’s Major Crimes Unit typically continues actively working a case like this one even after the immediate scene investigation concludes, following leads on a suspect’s known associates, family connections, and likely hiding places while the case remains open.

The Whistler Community

The Ridge Manor Apartments sit in Whistler, an unincorporated community in northern Mobile County that has long served as a working-class residential area just outside Prichard and the city of Mobile proper. Like many unincorporated communities that ring Mobile, Whistler falls under the primary jurisdiction of the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office rather than a municipal police department, which is why deputies rather than city officers responded to Saturday’s shooting. Unincorporated areas of Mobile County present a distinct set of policing considerations compared with incorporated cities: the sheriff’s office is responsible for patrolling a large geographic footprint with a mix of residential neighborhoods, apartment complexes, and industrial areas, and Major Crimes Unit detectives frequently handle serious violent crime investigations across that entire unincorporated area rather than being confined to a single town’s limits. That broader jurisdiction is also part of why interagency coordination, such as the BOLO alert issued for Napier, matters so much in these cases — a suspect fleeing an unincorporated community can just as easily cross into Prichard, Mobile, Chickasaw, or another nearby municipality within minutes, moving into a different agency’s primary jurisdiction even while remaining just a few miles from the scene of the crime.

How Crime Stoppers Programs Work

The sheriff’s office’s appeal to Mobile County Crime Stoppers reflects a tool used by law enforcement agencies nationwide to generate tips in cases where a suspect has fled before an arrest. Crime Stoppers organizations operate as independent nonprofits that work alongside police and sheriff’s departments, offering cash rewards for information leading to an arrest while allowing tipsters to remain completely anonymous — a structure specifically designed to encourage witnesses or people with knowledge of a suspect’s whereabouts to come forward even when they might otherwise be reluctant to speak directly with investigators. Tips can typically be submitted by phone, through a website, or via a mobile app, and are relayed to investigators without any identifying information about the source unless the tipster chooses to reveal it. In fugitive cases like this one, Crime Stoppers tips often prove valuable precisely because they can surface information from within a suspect’s own social circle — family members, friends, or neighbors who may know where someone is staying but would not otherwise contact a sheriff’s office’s main tip line directly.

What Happens After a Warrant Is Issued

Once a warrant has been issued and a suspect cannot immediately be located, the case effectively shifts from an active-scene investigation into a fugitive search, a distinct phase of law enforcement work with its own procedures. Detectives typically continue building the case file during this period, gathering witness statements, physical evidence, and any available surveillance footage, while patrol deputies and, in many jurisdictions, dedicated fugitive units follow up on leads regarding the suspect’s location. A warrant entered into state and national law enforcement databases means that any officer in the country who encounters the wanted individual during a traffic stop or other routine interaction can identify and detain them, which is part of why fugitives are often apprehended well outside the county or even the state where the original warrant was issued. If a suspect is later located out of state, Alabama authorities would generally need to pursue extradition, a legal process governed by the Uniform Criminal Extradition Act that most states have adopted, allowing a fugitive apprehended elsewhere to be returned to face charges in the jurisdiction where the warrant originated.

How Serious Assault Cases Typically Proceed

Once a suspect facing an Assault First Degree charge is taken into custody, the case moves into Alabama’s standard felony court process, beginning with an initial appearance before a judge where bail is set, followed by a preliminary hearing or grand jury proceeding to determine whether the case proceeds to formal indictment. Assault First Degree is a Class B felony under Alabama law, carrying a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison upon conviction, though actual sentencing outcomes depend heavily on case-specific factors including a defendant’s criminal history, the specifics of the injury inflicted, and whether the case ultimately resolves through a negotiated plea or proceeds to trial. Bail amounts in violent felony cases involving a firearm are generally set well above what is typical for lesser offenses, reflecting both the seriousness of the alleged conduct and, in cases where a suspect has already evaded arrest once, a judge’s assessment of flight risk. None of the specifics of how this particular case will proceed can be known until Napier is located and the matter formally moves through the Mobile County court system.

Trauma Care in the Mobile Region

The victim’s transport to USA Hospital reflects the region’s reliance on University of South Alabama Health’s hospital system for serious trauma cases. USA Health operates the region’s only Level I trauma center, a designation reserved for facilities equipped to provide the highest level of surgical and critical care for the most severe injuries, including multiple gunshot wounds, around the clock. That trauma center designation means gunshot victims from across a wide swath of southwest Alabama and the surrounding Gulf Coast are frequently routed to USA Health facilities rather than smaller community hospitals, which typically lack the specialized surgical teams and equipment needed to manage life-threatening penetrating trauma. The relatively rapid response described in this incident — deputies, EMS, and hospital transport all occurring within a short window after the shooting was reported — reflects the kind of coordinated emergency response protocol that Mobile-area first responders and trauma physicians have refined over years of handling similar violent crime cases.

Update: Suspect Arrested, Charged With First-Degree Assault

Jimmy Napier, 66, was booked into Mobile Metro Jail just after noon on Wednesday, Sept. 2, days after the shooting. He is charged with first-degree assault.

Napier is accused of shooting Kelvin Pettway twice at the Ridge Manor Apartments just before 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 29.

A Dispute Over a Chair

Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch said the confrontation began over seating.

“[Napier] was upset because, you know, no one asked him permission to sit in his chair,” Burch said.

First-degree assault in Alabama is a Class B felony, applying where a person causes serious physical injury by means of a deadly weapon. The charge, rather than a more serious one, reflects that the victim survived the shooting.

As with any criminal case, the charge is an allegation, and Napier is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.