Category Archives: Alabama

Mississippi tornado: death toll of 25 highest in the state in 21st century

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Fatalities from tornado the worst in 50 years, with more severe storms expected in the region on Sunday

Devastating storms and at least one large tornado which ripped through rural Mississippi on Friday night left 25 people dead in the state, dozens injured and rescue workers hauling people from rubble throughout Saturday, as the state reeled from its highest tornado-related death toll in decades.

Severe weather pounded several southern states overnight as the centers of destruction emerged on Saturday morning as the small, majority Black towns of Rolling Fork and Silver City in the Mississippi delta.

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‘We have to remain vigilant’: Biden warns of ‘hate and extremism’ in the US

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The president spoke in Selma at the site of ‘Bloody Sunday’ that led to passage of historic voting rights legislation nearly 60 years ago

Joe Biden paid tribute to the heroes of the “Bloody Sunday” civil rights march nearly 60 years ago and used its annual commemoration to warn of an ongoing threat to US democracy from election deniers and the erosion of voting rights.

The US president joined thousands of people in Selma, Alabama to mark the movement that led to the passage of landmark voting rights legislation shortly after peaceful marchers were brutally attacked by law enforcement on a bridge though town.

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Remains found in car in creek identified as US student who went missing in 1976

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Ford Pinto found in Alabama belonged to Kyle Clinkscales, 22, who disappeared nearly 50 years ago

Skeletal remains inside a car discovered in a creek a little more than a year ago belonged to an Auburn University student who had disappeared in 1976, authorities have confirmed, closing the book on a missing person case that had puzzled investigators for nearly five decades.

Kyle Clinkscales, 22, was last seen alive at a bar where he worked in his home town of LaGrange, Georgia, on the night of 27 January 1976. He was planning to drive back to school in Alabama about 35 miles away in his white 1974 Ford Pinto, but he never arrived.

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Alabama takes steps toward using nitrogen as new execution method

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But critics decry death penalty ‘experimentation’ that state is developing after a series of botched lethal injections

Alabama is close to completing a protocol that will use nitrogen gas as a new form of execution in the state, officials have said, amid warnings from advocacy groups that it is an experimental move after botched lethal injections.

On Wednesday, Alabama commissioner John Hamm, who heads the state’s prison systems, told the Associated Press, “We’re close. We’re close,” in reference to the new execution method. Hamm added that the protocol should be completed by the end of this year.

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US airport worker warned before being sucked into jet engine

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Alabama crew had ‘safety huddle’ about how to move around the plane and employee who was killed received warning to stay back

A worker at an airport in Alabama who died after being sucked into a jet engine this past New Year’s Eve had been warned repeatedly about the dangers of going near it, federal investigators revealed this week.

The Montgomery regional airport employee, along with other colleagues of the facility’s ground crew, had undergone a “safety huddle” about how to move around the plane at the center of the case 10 minutes before it arrived at the gate on 31 December, and there was another similar briefing just before the aircraft arrived at the gate, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in a report Monday.

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Town where Martin Luther King Jr made historic march reels from tornado

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Residents of Selma, Alabama, find resilience in civil rights leader’s legacy as US marks MLK Day

As the US marked Martin Luther King Jr Day on Monday, the town of Selma, Alabama, that hosted his historic 1965 march was still reeling from a tornado that destroyed buildings, swept away roofs and tossed around mobile homes.

Thursday’s twister in Selma was categorized as EF-2, indicating “significant”, and about 40 miles away in Autauga county, where it claimed seven lives – including four from the same family – it was EF-3 or “severe”.

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Alabama basketball player Darius Miles charged with murder after shooting

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  • Jamea Harris, 23, was shot dead near university’s campus
  • Crimson Tide say Miles is no longer part of team

Alabama basketball player Darius Miles and another man have been charged with capital murder after a fatal shooting near campus.

Captain Jack Kennedy of Tuscaloosa Police said that the shooting occurred early on Sunday morning near the university’s campus. He said Jamea Harris, 23, of the Birmingham area was shot and killed.

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Biden approves disaster funding after Alabama and Georgia tornadoes

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At least nine people died as survivors tell of hiding in bathtubs and containers as ferocious storms bore down on homes

Joe Biden approved a major disaster declaration for Alabama on Sunday, after at least nine people died in tornadoes that destroyed homes and knocked out power to tens of thousands in south-eastern US states this week.

The president ordered federal aid to supplement regional recovery efforts in the areas affected by severe storms, winds and tornadoes on 12 January, a White House statement said.

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At least seven people dead as tornadoes slam US south

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First responders search for possibly trapped survivors or further victims in Georgia and Alabama after storm eased Thursday night

First responders are searching for any trapped survivors and any additional victims in on Friday after a massive storm system whipping up severe winds and spawning tornadoes cut a deadly path across the US South the day before, killing at least seven people in Georgia and Alabama.

A twister damaged buildings and tossed cars in the streets of historic downtown Selma, Alabama. Houses were torn off their foundations and property was smashed up and flattened by flying debris and ripped up trees.

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Worker dies after being ‘ingested into engine’ at airport in Alabama

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Ground crew worker employed by American Airlines subsidiary involved in accident while aircraft parked at gate in Montgomery

A US ground crew worker has died after being “ingested into the engine” of an aircraft while they worked a shift at an airport in Montgomery, Alabama.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement to Insider that the tragic accident happened while an American Airlines Embraer 170 was parked at the gate with at least one engine on.

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One killed in shooting at New Year’s Eve festival in Alabama

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Nine people were injured while gathering for the Moon Pie Over Mobile event in downtown, police said

One person was killed and nine hurt in a shooting a few blocks away from where thousands were in the streets for a New Year’s Eve celebration in downtown Mobile, Alabama, police said.

TV news footage showed police officers running and on horseback rushing to the area where the shooting took place about 45 minutes before midnight Saturday.

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Alabama women, 85 and 61, sentenced after feeding stray cats

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Beverly Roberts and Mary Alston sought to trap the cats so they could be neutered

Two Alabama women were given suspended jail sentences last week after feeding stray cats and trapping them so they could be neutered, a common public health intervention to reduce stray numbers.

Beverly Roberts, 85, and Mary Alston, 61, of Wetumpka, Alabama, were sentenced to two years of unsupervised parole and a $100 fine each on Tuesday, reported the Montgomery Advertiser. The women were also given suspended 10-day jail sentences.

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‘Surreal spectacle’: US botched 35% of execution attempts this year

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Annual review reveals that seven of the 20 execution attempts carried out this year were visibly problematic

As 2022 draws to a close, a new grim distinction can be attached to it: in America it was the year of the botched execution.

In its annual review of US capital punishment, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) reveals the astonishing statistic that 35% of the 20 execution attempts carried out this year were visibly problematic.

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Student shot dead in Alabama forest by woman posing as stranded motorist, police say

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Duo charged with murder over killing of Adam Simjee, 22, who was forced to walk into woods with girlfriend and died after gunfight

When Adam Simjee and his girlfriend Mikayla Paulus stopped their car in the Talladega national forest in Alabama last week, after being flagged down by what the college students thought was a stranded driver, the couple did not think much of it.

But the “stranded driver” – a woman named Yasmine Hider – turned out to be a gun-wielding robber who forced Simjee, 22, and Paulus, 20, to walk into the woods. Simjee pulled out his own handgun and shot Hider in defense of his girlfriend and himself, but he did not survive the confrontation – police allege Hider shot him dead.

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Alabama subjected prisoner to ‘three hours of pain’ during execution – report

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Lethal injection of Joe Nathan James Jr may have taken longer than any other recorded in US history, according to an analysis

Alabama’s execution of Joe Nathan James Jr last month may have taken longer than any other lethal injection in recorded American history, and no death penalty ever administered in the US may have taken quite as long, according to an analysis by a human rights organization.

An examination by Reprieve US of James’s execution estimates that it took Alabama officials between three and three-and-a-half hours to carry out the lethal injection, a duration that the organization argues violates constitutional protections against inhumane punishments.

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Alabama city disbands police force after racist text messages revealed

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City council in small community of Vincent votes to terminate police chief, assistant and then whole department

The small city of Vincent in Alabama has voted to disband its police force after the revelation of racist text messages exchanged between two of its officers.

In the exchange, which recently surfaced on social media, one user named “752” asked: “What do y’all call a pregnant slave?” To this, one person who is not identifiable through the text, responded with question marks.

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‘We can’t play God’: daughter opposes death penalty for mother’s killer

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Terryln Hall was just six when Joe Nathan James Jr shot her mother, Faith, in Alabama but 30 years on is asking for mercy

Terryln Hall was just six years old when her mother, Faith, was fatally shot by a former boyfriend.

Now, nearly 30 years later, Hall and her sister – along with their uncle – oppose Alabama’s plan to execute the man who killed their mother. Unless a judge or the governor intervenes, Joe Nathan James Jr, 49, will die by lethal injection on Thursday evening at a south Alabama prison.

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Gunman, 70, kills three people at Alabama church dinner

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Police say the man fatally shot people attending monthly dinner at Episcopal church in Birmingham suburb

A 70-year-old man has shot and killed three people at a church potluck dinner in Alabama.

Police said the man, who had previously attended services at St Stephen’s Episcopal church, pulled out a handgun and fatally shot three of the participants, one of whom died in his wife’s arms.

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‘It gives us great hope’: mom of missing US serviceman says video is authentic

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A video of Alexander Drueke expressing his love for his mother has not yet been validated by the state department

The mother of an American military veteran who volunteered to defend Ukraine from Russian invaders and was reportedly captured recently said a video of him expressing his love for her gave her “great hope”.

Lois Drueke told the Guardian on Friday that she believes the video of her son Alexander Drueke – distributed by Russian state media – is authentic because of a phrase he uttered in the clip with his distinctively deep voice.

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Shooting at an Alabama church leaves two dead and one in hospital

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Police confirmed a suspect had been taken into custody after the attack at St Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Birmingham

A shooting at a church in a suburb of one of Alabama’s major cities left two people dead and two others wounded on Thursday, police said, adding a suspect was quickly taken into custody.

The shooting erupted inside St Stephen’s Episcopal church in the Birmingham suburb of Vestavia Hills.

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