Mass Shooting Arrest, Another Methodist Lawsuit: Down in Alabama

A key arrest

Birmingham police have charged a 22-year-old in the mass shooting that killed four people outside a bar in Five Points South on September 21, AL.com’s Carol Robinson reports.

They also charged Damien Laron McDaniel III with two counts other Murders that all occurred within 72 hours. He is accused of killing a woman who police say was an innocent passerby at a bar just over a day before the Five Points South killings and of shooting a man less than a day after the mass shooting.

There are also 17 counts of first-degree assault against people injured in Five Points South and three counts of attempted murder against people injured in one of the other shootings.

Police say the investigation is ongoing and touches on other crimes. They said the three shootings McDaniel is accused of were related, but did not say more.

Here’s an example of how this could be intertwined with more crime in Birmingham:

I mentioned above that one of McDaniel’s allegations stemmed from the shooting of a man. Three other people have been charged with murder in this killing. One of the defendants, Larry Denzel Rollins Jr., was acquitted of murder charges in 2010 another Killed earlier this year. This acquittal came after the shooting of a witness in the case. And that witness was Jordan Melton, a firefighter who was shot dead at Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service Station 9 last year.

Adjustments before the election

A federal judge has provided further guidance on Alabama’s program to remove voters from the voter rolls. U.S. District Judge Anna M. Manasco has already asked Secretary of State Wes Allen to stop the voter purge until after the Nov. 5 election.

The purpose of the program is to remove illegally registered persons from the registers. However, after a lawsuit was filed, it was discovered that the program had also placed many legal voters in inactive status.

AL.com’s Joseph D. Bryant reports that the judge gave the state three days to restore these individuals to active status.

Allen must also notify the Alabama Attorney General’s Office of the names that were incorrectly referred to that office for investigation.

185 year old church

Church Street Methodist Church in Selma has become the latest church to file a lawsuit against its United Methodist Church Conference over its property, AL.com’s Greg Garrison reports.

It is not the first time that people have tried to leave the UMC and then encountered hurdles in leaving. The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that Dothan’s Harvest Church has the right to have its case heard in civil court, but it also ruled that a group of 44 churches that sued the Alabama-West Florida Conference , have to keep their case in the courts of the Church.

Church Street Methodist is asking a judge to declare that the property belongs to its congregation, not its denomination.

The church has around 350 members. It’s 185 years old, so long ago that church history says it sits on the only land in Selma that was never bought or sold.

Quote

“I got a call from Katie Britt, a young, incredibly attractive person from Alabama.”

Presidential candidate Donald Trumpon Fox News Channel, paid an unusual compliment for a U.S. senator when he again praised Britt for pushing his pro-IVF stance.

More Alabama news

Born on this date

In 1955, Birmingham artist Kerry James Marshall founded.

1956 Astronaut Mae Jemison from Decatur. She was the first black woman in space.

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