Source: WPMI Channel 15 News (NBC)

MOBILE, AL — Police have released the names of two men killed and a third who was wounded Wednesday afternoon when a gunman walked up and fired into their vehicle at a busy McDonald’s drive-through in the Toulminville area of north Mobile.

The victims returned fire in the 4:40 p.m. incident. Mobile Police spokesman, Officer Eric Gallichant, said bullets hit a nearby church day-care center. He said no one inside the day-care was hurt.

Gallichant identified the dead as 22-year-old Demarcus Jones and 19-year-old Michael Tunstall. Jonathan Taylor, 20, was shot in the abdomen and managed to drive himself to the University of South Alabama Medical Center. His medical condition was unavailable.

More than a dozen people, including several children, were inside the restaurant at the time of the shooting. Acting Police Chief Lester Hargrove said the shooter showed — quote — “an absolute disregard for human life.”

Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson, Jr. said the shots were fired into the back of the vehicle when it rolled up to the restaurant window to pay. He said the attacker fled in a waiting vehicle.

Meanwhile, police are looking for 26-year-old Extaunia Ely, calling her a person of interest in the case. Through an investigation by Homicide Unit detectives, it was determined that Ely was inside the vehicle with the unidentified shooter when he fled the scene. So far, there have been no arrests.

Added: April 6, 2006


Source: Press-Register / al.com

Thursday, April 06, 2006

By NADIA M. TAYLOR
Staff Reporter

Two men were shot to death and another man was injured Wednesday afternoon when a gunman on foot approached a sport utility vehicle that was stopped in the drive-through of a Toulminville McDonald’s and opened fire, police said.

When the victims shot back, “numerous stray bullets” hit a day-care center several hundred yards away, but no children were injured, Mobile police spokesman Officer Eric Gallichant said in a news release.

The identities of the victims were not released Wednesday, and police had only a partial description of the gunman because he covered part of his face with a T-shirt, acting Police Chief Lester Hargrove said.

“The whole third precinct is out there now looking for him,” Hargrove said Wednesday afternoon while standing in the fast-food restaurant’s parking lot.

Several surveillance cameras are positioned on top of the restaurant, and Hargrove said investigators would review the footage from those cameras.

Shortly after 4:30 p.m., the three victims pulled up in a Chevrolet Blazer and ordered food at the McDonald’s drive-through on St. Stephens Road and Clinton Avenue in north Mobile, according to Mobile County District Attorney John M. Tyson Jr.

Then the vehicle moved up to the first window to pay for the food, Tyson said.

At that point, the gunman walked up behind the Blazer and opened fire, Tyson said.

The man fled the scene on foot and ran west on Clinton Avenue, police said, to an awaiting vehicle.

The driver of the Blazer, who was shot in the abdomen, sped away after the shooting with the two other victims and arrived at the University of South Alabama Medical Center a few minutes later, Tyson said.

The SUV was “just riddled with bullets,” Hargrove said. The vehicle was parked in front of the ambulance entrance, and blood drips could be seen below the bottom of the rear passenger door.

The back windshield had been shot out, and more than a dozen empty shell casings were found in the rear of the vehicle.

Another half dozen shell casings were marked by investigators in the McDonald’s parking lot, scattered all around the drive-through area.

The brightly colored plastic toys and equipment behind the Toulminville-Warren Street United Methodist Church Day Care Center sat empty Wednesday afternoon, a large mural of two Sesame Street characters, Big Bird and Elmo, stood watch over a deserted playground.

Several children remained at the day-care center after the shootout sent at least one bullet through a side window, according to Pastor Donald Smith.

“What you have here is an absolute disregard for life,” Hargrove said. “There are kids here, old people, adults. There is absolutely no regard for human life.”

Tyson agreed, calling the area where the shooting took place “one of the busiest commercial areas in the city.”

More than a dozen people, including several children in school uniforms, were inside the restaurant at the time of the shooting and were being questioned by police Wednesday afternoon.

The entire McDonald’s parking lot was roped off with yellow crime tape, and at 6 p.m. officers blocked off part of Clinton Avenue to the several hundred onlookers who had gathered.

Traffic slowed to a standstill at times.

Added: April 6, 2006


Source: WKRG Channel 5 News (CBS)

Two men are dead and another is in the hospital after a shooting at the drive-through at a McDonald’s restaurant on St. Stephens Road in Toulminville Wednesday afternoon. Just after 4:30, three men in a Chevrolet SUV were ordering food in the drive-through when a man with a white t-shirt pulled over his head to conceal his identity opened fire.

“A young man came behind them and got to the back quarter-panel of the vehicle and started shooting. And as he shot, he was shooting and he was hitting people. He was hitting people inside the vehicle,” said Interim Mobile Police Chief Lester Hargrove. “I don’t know if he ran out of bullets or not, but I do know that he retreated back to a vehicle, the same vehicle that he had gotten out of, back in this direction here. The young men at that time, possibly, we’re thinking possibly returned fire, because there is a bullet over behind the day care center, right behind you as we speak.”

Chief Hargrove says it’s a wonder that more people weren’t caught in the crossfire, because there were people inside the restaurant, and children at a day care center just across the street on Clinton Ave. “Definitely so, because as we said before, there is a day care center, as we speak, and it was full of kids, because the parents don’t pick the kids up until 5:00, and this happened at 4:30,” Hargrove said. “Luckily, kids weren’t coming out, getting into their parents cars when the gunshots were going on. As far as I’m concerned, the shooter has absolutely no regard for human life.”

Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson, Jr. says based on what they know now, he believes the shooter had a grudge with the victims. “That there is a score to settle, that there’s some sort of ongoing fight in the community, and when the shooter drives up, he recognizes three in the car, and then takes advantage of the opportunity.”

The driver of the SUV drove himself and the other victims to USA Medical Center for treatment. Hargrove said the driver had been shot in the abdomen. The other two men died. The interim chief says investigators have some good leads. “Of course, there’s a camera right up there, too that we’re going to secure films from the McDonald’s camera that they have,” Hargrove said. “And, of course, he was about 5′ 9″, from what I’m hearing, from one of the witnesses, and of course there was someone else driving the car, when he jumped in, they sped off also.”

Police are looking for a car with bullet holes in it, but they didn’t want to release the make and model just yet. If you have any information that can help them, please call Mobile Police.

Added: April 6, 2006