Second Suspect in Custody After West Mobile Shootout With Police

Mobile police took 32-year-old Tommy Goleman into custody near a restaurant on Airport Boulevard, ending an overnight manhunt for the suspect they say fired multiple gunshots at officers during a chase in west Mobile. The capture closed out a night of tension for residents of the neighborhoods where the search was concentrated, after police warned people to stay inside while the armed suspect remained at large.

How the chase began

The incident started when officers responded to Pronto Pawn at 4073 Government Boulevard after receiving a report that a man wanted on multiple arrest warrants was at the location. Officers spotted a black vehicle driven by Goleman and tried to pull it over; police said he sped off instead, leading them on a pursuit that ended near Holden Drive at Oak Ridge Avenue.

What followed turned a routine warrant response into one of the more dangerous chases the city has seen. According to the department, Goleman and his front-seat passenger both got out of the vehicle once it stopped. Goleman fired several shots at officers as he fled on foot, and police returned fire. No one was struck in the exchange.

The passenger, identified as 32-year-old Antonio Nettles, was arrested a short time later. Officers took him into custody near the scene while the search for Goleman continued through the night.

Pursuits that end with shots fired put an entire grid of neighborhoods on alert, and police immediately moved to contain the area around where Goleman vanished on foot, setting a perimeter and calling in additional resources.

An aerial search before the arrest

While Goleman was on the loose, police warned residents around Knollwood Drive, Girby Road, Lloyds Lane, Hill Crest Road and Nevis Road to lock their doors and call 911 if they saw anything suspicious. The warning covered a densely developed pocket of west Mobile between Government Boulevard and Airport Boulevard, where the streets are lined with homes, small shops and strip centers.

The Coast Guard assisted with an aerial search of the area, scanning from above while officers on the ground checked yards, ditches and businesses block by block. Aviation support gave searchers a view of the neighborhood that ground units could not match, and the involvement of the federal agency showed how seriously authorities treated the threat posed by a suspect considered armed and dangerous.

Residents reported a heavy police presence throughout the night, with patrol cars, K-9 units and officers from multiple divisions converging on the search area. Some households kept their lights on and their doors locked while the search continued, and few people ventured out as the hours passed without an arrest.

Why Goleman was wanted

Goleman was wanted on outstanding warrants from the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office for probation violation and first-degree escape, along with theft and burglary charges out of Bayou La Batre. The warrants made him a priority target for law enforcement on both sides of Mobile Bay before the night began.

First-degree escape and probation violation warrants signal a person who has already been through the court system and is accused of failing to comply with its terms. Combined with the theft and burglary charges from the Bayou La Batre area in south Mobile County, they explain why officers moved quickly once they learned where he was.

The capture near Bonefish Grill

Goleman was considered armed and dangerous throughout the search before his capture near Bonefish Grill on Airport Boulevard. The restaurant, a well-known landmark on one of west Mobile’s busiest commercial corridors, sits among a stretch of shops and eateries where an armed fugitive on foot posed a risk to employees and late-night customers alike.

Officers took Goleman into custody without further shots being fired, bringing an end to the manhunt hours after the chase began. He was transported to jail to face the new charges from the overnight incident in addition to the outstanding warrants that started it all.

The new allegations against Goleman include firing at officers during the pursuit, a charge category that carries serious potential penalties under Alabama law. Each of the outstanding warrants from Baldwin County and Bayou La Batre remains active, meaning the case will involve multiple jurisdictions coordinating on prosecution.

The neighborhoods affected

The area between Government Boulevard and Airport Boulevard where the search unfolded is one of the most familiar cross-sections of west Mobile for anyone who lives in the city. Holden Drive and Oak Ridge Avenue, where the vehicle pursuit ended, sit just north of Government, and the streets named in the police warning — Knollwood, Girby, Lloyds Lane, Hill Crest and Nevis — thread through established residential blocks built out during Mobile’s postwar growth.

West Mobile’s commercial corridors draw shoppers and diners from across the city and from neighboring Baldwin County, which is one reason police emphasized public safety warnings so heavily during the search. An armed suspect moving on foot through a retail district changes the calculus for everyone nearby.

Community members praised the rapid warnings, which went out through police social media channels and local news while the search was underway. Public alerts of that kind have become standard practice for Mobile police during searches for armed suspects, and officers credit them with keeping residents out of harm’s way.

Officer-involved incidents and the review process

Whenever shots are fired between police and a suspect, the incident triggers a review. Mobile police follow internal procedures for officer-involved shootings, documenting the scene, collecting evidence and interviewing the officers involved. The Alabama State Bureau of Investigation can also be called in to review such incidents independently.

In this case, no officers were struck and no bystanders were reported injured, but the fact that gunfire was exchanged in a residential neighborhood ensures the review will be thorough. Findings from such reviews determine whether the use of force followed department policy and state law.

Nettles, the passenger arrested at the scene, faces charges connected to the incident, though his alleged role was limited to being in the vehicle when the pursuit began, according to the information police released. Prosecutors will determine what, if any, charges apply as the investigation proceeds.

What comes next

Goleman’s arrest concludes the search but opens a lengthy legal process. He faces the outstanding Baldwin County warrants for probation violation and first-degree escape, the theft and burglary charges out of Bayou La Batre, and new charges stemming from the pursuit and the exchange of gunfire with officers.

Coordinate the jurisdictions involved, and the case will move through Mobile County courts while authorities on the eastern shore handle their own warrants. For the residents of the neighborhoods where the manhunt played out, the arrest brought relief after a night spent behind locked doors listening to police helicopters and sirens.

Police encouraged anyone with additional information about the incident to contact Mobile police or CrimeStoppers as investigators continue to piece together the full sequence of events from the pawn shop parking lot to the arrest on Airport Boulevard.

How police chases unfold in Mobile

Pursuits like the one that began at the pawn shop on Government Boulevard follow a playbook that Mobile police have refined over years. When a driver refuses to stop, dispatchers log the route while supervisors decide whether the risk of continuing the chase outweighs the need to make the arrest. In this case, the pursuit ended near Holden Drive at Oak Ridge Avenue, where the suspect bailed out of the black vehicle and opened fire.

Once a suspect flees on foot in a residential area, the operation shifts from pursuit to containment. Officers establish a perimeter around the last known location, and additional units move in from surrounding districts to seal off escape routes. That is the posture police held through the overnight hours while the Coast Guard aircraft swept overhead.

Aviation support has become a valuable asset in manhunts across the region. From the air, a thermal camera or spotlight can spot movement that ground officers would miss, and a aircraft can cover in minutes the territory that would take officers hours to walk. The Coast Guard’s assistance reflected the close working relationship among Gulf Coast agencies, which routinely support one another during emergencies.

For the officers involved, the night’s events will involve paperwork and review long after the arrest. Firing at a suspect, and being fired upon, sets in motion the same documentation requirements that follow any officer-involved shooting, from scene photographs to ballistics evidence to interviews conducted under department policy.

The incident also illustrates how warrants from one county can produce headlines in another. Goleman’s legal troubles originated in Baldwin County and Bayou La Batre, but they exploded into danger on the streets of west Mobile when officers recognized the wanted man and tried to take him into custody. Law enforcement officials note that wanted subjects with nothing left to lose often pose the greatest risk during traffic stops, which is why officers approach known fugitives with such caution.