MOBILE, Ala. — The Mobile Police Department is offering a cash reward of $2,500 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons involved in the recent shootings near Rickarby Park.
The reward covers two separate incidents on the same block, seven and a half weeks apart. One struck a home and wounded a woman who had nothing to do with it. The other struck multiple vehicles and a home. Both happened in the 500 block of Rickarby Street.
The Chief’s Appeal
Mobile Police Chief William Jackson framed the reward as a response to a specific problem: investigators believe the information exists, and it is not reaching them.
“Someone knows more about these shootings than we’re being told, and it’s vital they step up and do the right thing by coming forward with information,” Jackson said. “Please don’t assume that your tip is too small to matter. Your information could be the missing piece that our investigators need to solve these cases.”
That second sentence is doing specific work. The most common reason a witness stays silent — after fear of retaliation — is a belief that what they saw or heard is too fragmentary to be useful. A partial license plate, the color of a car, a direction of travel, the number of shots, a time stamp on a phone. Investigators build cases out of exactly those pieces, and a detail that seems meaningless to the person holding it can be the item that connects two others.
Jackson also described an ongoing physical presence on the street.
“My officers are actively patrolling this area on foot and by vehicle, continuing to speak with residents in the 500 block of Rickarby Street where both of these shootings occurred,” he said.
The First Shooting: July 22
The first shooting on Rickarby Street took place on Wednesday, July 22, at approximately 11:40 p.m.
A home and an innocent female victim were struck by gunfire. The victim continues to recover.
The phrasing police used — an innocent victim — signals that investigators do not believe the woman was a target. Gunfire directed at a structure in a residential block does not stop at the exterior wall, and people inside houses are hit in shootings aimed at something else with regularity.
The Second Shooting: Sept. 13
The second shooting occurred on Sunday, Sept. 13, at approximately 9 p.m.
Multiple vehicles and a home were struck by gunfire. No injuries were reported in the second incident.
Two shootings on the same block within a two-month window is the pattern that moved this from two case files to a single investigative focus with a reward attached. Repeat gunfire at the same address or on the same block usually indicates either an ongoing dispute between identifiable parties or a location that has become a target for reasons the people living there may not fully know.
A Block That Has Already Said It Is Tired
Residents of Rickarby Street have already spoken publicly about what living through this has been like. In the days after the September shooting, neighbors described a street where gun violence has not let up, and said the problem had not left their block.
That is the part of these cases that does not appear in an incident report. The people most affected by repeat shootings on a residential street are generally not the parties involved in whatever dispute is driving them. They are the households that now sleep in interior rooms, park differently, and check on their children when a car slows down outside.
They are also, frequently, the people who know something — which is why a reward is offered in the first place.
How Rewards Work, and Why They Are Used
A reward for information leading to arrest and conviction is a standard investigative tool, and its structure matters.
The money is not paid for a tip. It is paid when information leads to both an arrest and a conviction — a chain that can take a year or more to complete. That structure is deliberate. It filters out speculation and fabrication, because a tip that does not survive contact with evidence produces no payment.
The reason departments use rewards on cases like this is that they address the specific obstacle in neighborhood shooting investigations: not a lack of witnesses, but a lack of witnesses willing to be witnesses. Rewards work by adding a competing incentive to the calculation a reluctant witness is making, and by providing a reason to come forward that a person can offer to others if asked.
Departments pair rewards with confidentiality for the same reason. Police said tips in this case will remain confidential.
What Investigators Are Likely Looking For
In shootings where structures and vehicles are struck, the evidence set is generally broader than it first appears. Shell casings recovered at a scene can be entered into national ballistics databases and matched against casings from other incidents, which is often how a single firearm links multiple shootings that were not otherwise connected. Bullet trajectories through a wall or a vehicle establish shooter position. Residential and business camera footage from surrounding blocks can establish vehicle movement before and after.
What that evidence frequently cannot supply on its own is a name. That is the gap a witness fills — and the gap the reward is aimed at.
The Broader Context in Mobile
Gun violence has been a persistent focus for Mobile police and city leadership, and the department has increasingly paired traditional investigation with public appeals, targeted patrols and community engagement in specific areas.
The approach described by Chief Jackson on Rickarby Street — officers working the block on foot as well as in vehicles, and talking to residents directly — reflects that. Foot patrol in a specific block after repeat incidents serves two purposes at once: visible deterrence, and the relationship-building that occasionally produces the conversation a case needs.
Whether that produces a break in these two cases is the open question. The department has now added $2,500 to the effort.
How to Submit Information
Anyone with information about either shooting is encouraged to contact the Mobile Police Department. Tips will remain confidential.
Investigators have asked specifically that people not filter their own information before sharing it. As the chief put it, no detail should be assumed too small to matter.
Case Summary
Incident 1: Wednesday, July 22, approximately 11:40 p.m., 500 block of Rickarby Street. A home and one female victim struck by gunfire. The victim continues to recover.
Incident 2: Sunday, Sept. 13, approximately 9 p.m., 500 block of Rickarby Street. Multiple vehicles and a home struck by gunfire.
Reward: $2,500 for information leading to arrest and conviction.
The Specific Difficulty of Neighborhood Shooting Cases
Investigations into gunfire directed at homes and vehicles on a residential street occupy an awkward middle ground in police work.
They are not homicides, which draw dedicated units, extended timelines and sustained resources. But they are also not minor property crimes, because a round that enters a house in the 500 block of anywhere is a homicide that missed. The July incident on Rickarby Street makes that point directly: a woman who was not a target was struck inside a residence and is still recovering.
The evidentiary problem is that these cases frequently have no cooperating victim. In a shooting between parties who know each other, the person shot at may have reasons not to explain why. In a shooting aimed at a house, the occupants may genuinely not know who fired or why. Either way, the case tends to rest on physical evidence and third-party witnesses rather than a complainant who can name a suspect.
That is the gap a reward is designed to address. It does not produce evidence. It produces the willingness of someone who already has evidence to share it.
Why the Second Incident Changes the Calculation
A single shooting on a residential block is an incident. A second one at the same location, seven and a half weeks later, is a pattern — and patterns have causes that can be identified.
Investigators working two connected incidents have more to work with than investigators working one. Ballistic evidence from both scenes can be compared. Vehicle descriptions and camera footage from two separate dates can be cross-referenced. And the set of people with a motive that persists across two months is narrower than the set of people who might have fired once.
It also raises the stakes. A block that has been shot at twice has a reasonable expectation of being shot at again, which is the operational reason a department escalates from routine investigation to a public reward offer and a visible patrol presence.
What Residents Can Do
Police have asked for information of any kind related to either date. Useful information in cases like these is often more mundane than people expect.
A doorbell camera or dash camera that was recording anywhere on the block or on approaching streets around 11:40 p.m. on July 22 or around 9 p.m. on Sept. 13 may hold footage the owner has never reviewed. A vehicle that seemed out of place. A description of a car that left quickly. The number of shots heard and the direction they came from, which helps establish shooter position. The time a phone recorded a call or a message, which anchors the sequence.
Residents who are uncertain whether what they have matters are precisely the people Chief Jackson addressed. Investigators would rather evaluate a hundred fragments than miss the one that connects the case.
The Reward Structure, Restated
The $2,500 is payable for information leading to arrest and conviction — meaning the process runs through the court system, not just the initial arrest. Tips will remain confidential.
For a block that has now lived through two shootings in less than two months, the practical hope attached to that money is not the money itself. It is that someone who has been weighing whether to speak finds a reason to do it.