Good Guy with a Gun #285: Hoover, AL
A wrongly targeted teenager is alive today because the men next door were armed and willing to engage in gun violence. | Original incident: August 12, 2024
These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. Today’s post is somewhat updated from the calendar version.
Kids were outside their apartment complex waiting for the school bus. A 16-year-old was sitting in his family’s car, waiting for them to drive him to school.
And two men walked up out of nowhere and started firing into the car, hitting him several times.
I can only imagine the chaos as the property manager rushed the kids at the bus stop inside the leasing office.
Fortunately, two other men came out of a nearby apartment and returned fire. The shooters ran for it.
The teenager was rushed to UAB Hospital in critical but stable condition.
Police detained the two men who’d fired back, then let them go. “We know that they did fire rounds and we did detain them for investigation and at this point in the case,” Hoover PD Lt. Daniel Lowe said. “The district attorney is not inclined to charge them.”
One of the criminals didn’t get away unscathed. Within the hour, a call came in from a fire department in McCalla, some 15 miles off: a gunshot victim.
It was Bryan DeCarlos Mills Jr., 25, of Birmingham — driven there, not to a hospital, by his partner, Marlon Kentral Williams, 21, in a car stolen months earlier out of Hoover. Williams was charged with attempted murder, four counts of firing into occupied and unoccupied homes and cars, and first-degree receiving stolen property, on $500,000 bond. Mills faced the same attempted-murder and firearms counts — booked six days later, once the hospital released him, on $440,000.
Whatever this was actually about, it wasn’t about the kid they shot. Hoover police say they found no evidence he had anything to do with whoever the two men were actually after — he’d just been mistaken for somebody else.
“This was a truly innocent 16-year-old victim,” Lt. Lowe said, “and it’s just a tragedy that he was the victim of gun violence in our city.”
Lt. Lowe failed to mention the gun violence that saved the child from being murdered.
Sources
Primary
The Hoover Police Department put out two press releases, one naming the suspects the day of the arrests and a second once the additional gun and stolen-property charges came through.
Arrests Made in Shooting that Injured 16-Year-Old Victim (Arrests)
Additional Charges Filed Against Hoover Shooting Suspects (Additional charges)
Local news
There was a fair amount of on-air time for this case — not surprising, considering its shocking nature.
WBRC ran four pieces tracking the case from the morning of the shooting through Mills’s own booking a week later. The morning-of report now redirects to one of the later reports.
Hoover police arrest two suspects involved in shooting that injured 16-year-old (Additional charges)
New charges filed against 2 people arrested in shooting involving 16-year-old Hoover HS student (Charges filed)
2nd man charged in shooting of Hoover HS student released from hospital; booked in jail (Mills booked)
ABC 3340 also ran four, tracking the case from the day after the shooting through Mills’s own booking.
Police presence at the Benton Apartments in Hoover (Day-after; partial mayor statement)
Police release more details, name suspects in shooting of Hoover teen (Suspects named)
Suspects in shooting of Hoover teen face additional charges (Additional charges)
Second suspect jailed in Hoover teen shooting (Mills booked)
CBS 42 (WIAT) had the fullest day-of account, but spent a lot of on-air time showing Randy Kendrick talking about hauling junk away from a playground that had been hit by a drunk driver.
AL.com’s coverage is paywalled; it’s hit-or-miss as to whether you’re magically granted a free 7-day pass to see it.