Seven young adults were arrested in Bay Minette early Thursday morning after a report of gunfire near South and Bay streets led officers to a home where they found illegal firearms and drugs, according to the Bay Minette Police Department.
Officers were dispatched just after midnight to investigate the shots-fired report. When they arrived, they found a group of young adults gathered in the front yard of a home in the 200 block of Bay Street. Police said the group refused to cooperate with officers or consent to a search of the property.
While speaking with the group, officers said they detected the smell of marijuana and noticed several spent shell casings scattered in the grass near the home, prompting them to seek a search warrant for the residence and yard.
Once the warrant was granted, officers searched the property and recovered two assault-type rifles, ammunition, marijuana and drug paraphernalia, according to police.
All seven people taken into custody ranged in age from 18 to 20. They were arrested and transported to the Baldwin County Jail. The Bay Minette Police Department has not released the specific charges each individual is facing or said whether additional arrests are expected as the investigation continues.
Bay Minette, the seat of Baldwin County government, has seen its population grow steadily in recent years alongside the broader Eastern Shore and Baldwin County region. Local police have increasingly relied on search warrants tied to weapons complaints as a tool for removing illegally possessed firearms from neighborhoods, and shots-fired calls remain among the most common ways such investigations begin.
Anyone with additional information about the incident is encouraged to contact the Bay Minette Police Department.