Mobile police are looking into a string of four shootings that unfolded over a roughly 16-hour stretch this week, leaving one man dead and five other people injured, including an infant hurt by flying glass and debris.
Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Battiste said the shootings occurred between 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and 11 a.m. Wednesday. While investigators have found no evidence connecting the incidents, Battiste said police are actively examining whether the shootings are related.
The first shooting was reported shortly after 8:30 p.m. Tuesday on Duval Street in the Maysville neighborhood. A 17-year-old and a 20-year-old were taken to the hospital with injuries; both have since been released. No suspect has been identified, and investigators are continuing to follow up on leads.
Later that night, gunfire erupted on Driftwood Drive, where police say several rounds were fired into an occupied house. Two people were hurt, one critically. Among the injured was an infant who suffered minor wounds from broken glass and debris inside the home.
Early Wednesday morning, officers responded to reports of shots fired on North Kendall Court. Battiste said that call turned out to involve a self-inflicted gunshot wound rather than an assault.
The fourth shooting was reported around 11 a.m. Wednesday at the intersection of Lafayette Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, where two people were shot inside a vehicle. One of them, 21-year-old Carey Wheat, was pronounced dead at the scene. The second victim was taken for treatment locally.
Though Battiste did not connect the shootings to one another, he used the briefing to caution against vigilante justice and to ask residents to come forward with information about violent crime in their neighborhoods.
“Our community will not be held hostage or under siege by individuals who feel like the only way to get things done is by shooting it out in neighborhoods,” Battiste said. “I’m asking the people who typically ask law enforcement what we’re doing, what are they doing in their communities to hold these individuals accountable. If they know who these individuals are, they need to speak up.”
Battiste also voiced frustration over witnesses, and even victims, who decline to cooperate with investigators, saying that reluctance can stall cases and allow violence to continue.
“There are oftentimes victims of crime that won’t speak up because they want to take matters into their own hands,” he said. “There are times our investigations are impeded because the victims fail to cooperate with us in sharing information about their assailant. There are families that are complicit because they know who’s responsible.”
Gun violence remains a persistent concern in Mobile and across South Alabama, where local law enforcement agencies routinely emphasize community cooperation as a key tool in solving shootings and preventing retaliatory violence. Anyone with information about these incidents is encouraged to contact the Mobile Police Department.