Police believe that Wilkins walked into the Copper Top shortly after midnight
and began shooting with a military-type assault weapon, wounding 17
customers, including three seriously and one critically.
“We were in the middle of ordering drinks and I saw the shooter open fire,”
Tuscaloosa resident Davis Leavelle told the Birmingham News.
“I grabbed my sister and we ducked under the pool table. I saw eight or nine
people who were shot. Two of our friends were hit in the leg and foot. Shell
casings hit me and my sister on the back as we sat under the table.”
Wilkins is also suspected of an arson attack in the early hours of the morning
on the Capstone Oil company premises in nearby Brookwood, where he worked
until March. A gas well rig near the offices was also set ablaze.
Police launched a manhunt before receiving a call from an employee at a FedEx
store in Jasper, a town 55 miles (88 kilometers) north of Tuscaloosa. The
employee said Wilkins was there and had confessed to the shooting.
Wilkins was then arrested “without incident,” Tuscaloosa police sergeant Brent
Blankley told AFP.
Police said bail had been set at $2 million and offered no possible motive for
the shooting.
The suspect’s Facebook page showed photos of a balding, shaven-headed man with
tattoos on his arms, posing with an assault rifle, standing in front of a
Confederate flag and making an obscene gesture, local media said.
The page was taken down shortly after the incident.
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