MOBILE, Ala. — For nearly three years, the public knew the Nov. 13, 2023, Mobile police SWAT raid on Sheringham Drive mostly through competing descriptions. Now the police bodycam video is out, and it shows in real time the seconds in which 16-year-old Randall Adjessom was shot inside his family’s home and the minutes officers spent before reaching him with first aid.
The recordings were made public after U.S. District Judge Terry Moorer, who is presiding over the Adjessom family’s federal wrongful-death lawsuit, ordered their release over the objection of an attorney for one of the officers. Moorer had ruled that the public has a right to see the footage, which he reviewed in deciding which of the family’s claims could move forward.
Inside the raid
The footage begins at about 5:37 a.m., as the sun was coming up over the west Mobile neighborhood near Cottage Hill Road. Mobile Police Department SWAT officers gather outside the home in the 3400 block of Sheringham Drive to serve a search warrant, then approach the front door.
“Police! Search warrant!” officers shout as they bang on the front door and a window. “Police! Search warrant! Get on the ground!”
The officers quickly move inside, and the cameras follow them through the first floor. Just seconds after entering, officers encounter Adjessom coming around a corner.
“Get on the ground!” one officer shouts. “Hands up! Hands up! Hands up! Shots fired! Shots fired!”
Officer Osviel Vigoa-Martinez, the first in a line of officers moving down the hallway, fired the shots. Adjessom was struck four times.
“Hands up! Hands up!” a voice can be heard shouting on the recording. “He’s down! He’s down!”
An officer then radioed what had happened. “Be advised, we got shots fired inside,” he said. “We’re good. We got one down the hallway.”
What the video does and does not show
The views from Vigoa-Martinez’s body camera and from the other officers’ cameras are obscured at key moments, and the recordings do not settle the central dispute in the case.
The Mobile Police Department has maintained that the officer fired because Adjessom pointed a laser-sighted handgun at officers. Days after the shooting, police said the teenager aimed the weapon at them before he was shot. Police say the gun is visible next to Adjessom after he fell, and one of the videos shows an officer removing a weapon.
The family’s attorneys tell a different story. They contend Adjessom had his hands up and was backing away when he was shot.
Moorer himself acknowledged the limits of the recordings. In a footnote to his earlier ruling allowing parts of the lawsuit to continue, he wrote that body cameras do not always capture an optimal view.
“Ultimately, body worn camera footage provides an unbiased glimpse into certain events as they occurred, but a camera’s wearer is, first and foremost, concerned with the task at hand, rather than the quality of the footage that is captured, especially given the circumstances that are presented during the events that occurred in this case,” the judge wrote.
The minutes after the shooting
Adjessom did not die immediately. The video shows him on the floor in obvious pain for several minutes while officers held their positions. The officers said they had not yet determined it was safe to approach.
“He’s looking pretty rough,” one officer said.
Another responded: “Doesn’t matter. We’re not clear.”
Eventually, officers reached Adjessom and began first aid.
“We got multiple GSWs to the chest and abdomen,” one officer reported, using shorthand for gunshot wounds. “He’s gonna be a civilian male.”
Officers worked with the supplies they had while waiting for paramedics. “At this point, he needs to be someplace else besides with me,” said the officer applying gauze. “There’s only so much I can do.”
That stretch of the footage goes to one of the claims still alive in the lawsuit. The family alleges that officers let precious time pass before rendering aid and then provided only cursory treatment. In his July ruling, Moorer found that there were factual disputes over whether it was reasonable for officers to secure the house first, and that the video alone could not resolve how quickly treatment was provided.
Why police were at the house
Randall Adjessom was not the target of the warrant. The raid was part of a narcotics investigation focused on his older brother, Deangelo Adjessom.
According to court records, police had stopped Deangelo days earlier and found marijuana and a firearm, and investigators suspected him of distributing marijuana. They later obtained a warrant to search the Sheringham Drive home. Court records say Deangelo did not live there, and he was not at the house when SWAT officers arrived. During the search, officers found 8 grams of marijuana.
The raid was the last of four encounters with Mobile police officers in 2023 that ended in a civilian’s death. After it, then-Mayor Sandy Stimpson ordered a halt to predawn raids by the department.
The family saw it first
Adjessom’s family viewed the recordings the day after the shooting. Ricardo Woods, a former Mobile city attorney, was in the room when they watched.
“I would tell you, it is tragic to see the loss of life, especially if you have parents who are grieving a young person. But, I think any time a father or a mother, or a brother or sister lose someone, you’re going to feel the gravity of it,” Woods said.
How the footage became public
The family filed a federal wrongful-death lawsuit against the city of Mobile and the officers involved, and the body camera footage remained under seal while the case proceeded.
In July 2026, Moorer narrowed the lawsuit. He dismissed a claim that other officers failed to intervene, reasoning that the shots were fired over a span of at most about two seconds. He allowed claims of excessive force, false imprisonment and deliberate indifference to medical needs to go forward. In the same ruling, he said the recordings he had reviewed should be made public because they formed part of the basis for his decision.
The footage was set for release Sept. 1, but an attorney for Vigoa-Martinez asked the judge to reconsider, arguing that releasing the videos before trial would make it difficult to seat an impartial jury. Moorer paused the release to hear arguments. At a Sept. 30 hearing, he stood by his original order, and the video has now been released.
At that same hearing, Moorer temporarily halted depositions and document exchanges about the city’s broader police policies until the court decides whether the officers at the scene acted unconstitutionally.
Where the case stands
The Adjessom family’s lawsuit against the city and the officers remains pending in federal court in Mobile. The city has defended the officers’ actions, maintaining the shooting was justified because, police say, Adjessom pointed a gun at officers. The officers have not been criminally charged, and the allegations in the lawsuit have not been decided by a jury.
Key facts
- Date and place: Nov. 13, 2023, about 5:37 a.m., 3400 block of Sheringham Drive, Mobile
- Killed: Randall Adjessom, 16
- Warrant target: His older brother, Deangelo Adjessom, who was not at the home
- Officer who fired: Osviel Vigoa-Martinez
- Police account: Adjessom pointed a laser-sighted pistol at officers
- Family’s account: Adjessom had his hands up and was backing away
- Claims pending: Excessive force, false imprisonment and deliberate indifference to medical needs
- Judge: U.S. District Judge Terry Moorer