A Mobile man was jailed after an early-morning shooting outside a motel near Interstate 10 left another man injured, according to the Mobile Police Department.
Officers responded to a report of shots fired at the America’s Best Inn on Coca Cola Road at around 1:30 a.m. When police arrived, they found two men struggling over a handgun, according to a police spokeswoman with the department.
One of the men suffered a single gunshot wound to the stomach during the altercation. Medics transported him to the University of South Alabama Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition. Police did not release his name, and it was not clear whether he would face any charges of his own once he recovers.
Officers detained 47-year-old Edward Cordell Burks of Mobile at the scene. He was booked into Mobile County Metro Jail on one count of second-degree assault around 5 a.m. and remained held as of later that morning, according to jail records.
A Mobile Police Department spokeswoman said investigators had not yet determined what led to the confrontation between the two men. No further details about the relationship between the men involved, or what preceded the struggle over the weapon, were released as the investigation continued into the following days.
The America’s Best Inn sits along a stretch of Mobile near Interstate 10 that has seen periodic police activity tied to the corridor’s mix of budget hotels and commercial development. Police did not indicate whether either man was a registered guest at the motel or whether they knew each other before the confrontation began.
Second-degree assault is a Class C felony under Alabama law, and a conviction can carry additional weight if a firearm was involved in the underlying dispute, even when it was allegedly the victim’s weapon that discharged during a struggle rather than one brought by the person now facing charges.
Anyone with information about the incident was asked to contact the Mobile Police Department. The case remained under investigation, and additional charges were considered possible pending both the outcome of that investigation and the condition of the man who was shot.