Man in custody after shootout with police in Alabama City
Times Staff Writer
Published: Monday, January 9, 2012 at 9:26 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 12:11 a.m.
A man thought to be an Islamic extremist is believed to have shot the windows out of at least two businesses in Alabama City early Sunday to lure police officers to the area and engage them in a shootout.
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Luis Ibarra-Hernandez was charged with attempted murder. (Special to The Times)
Luis Ibarra-Hernandez, 21, from Albertville, was charged today with attempted murder, according to a news release from the Gadsden Police Department.
“After the man was taken into custody, he reported that he knew he must do something extreme to draw attention to Islam and himself, so he planned to shoot police officers,” Gadsden Police Capt. Regina May said.
Gadsden police officers responded to alarm calls for glass breakage after doors were shot out about 1:30 a.m. Sunday at AutoZone and Rainbow Food Mart near the intersection of 27th Street and West Meighan Boulevard.
While investigating the broken doors and determining they were shot out, officers heard gunfire and spotted a man near the old CVS building.
The man knew he had been seen and ran toward the Cathedral of Praise Church parking lot, then started firing rounds at the officers.
The man continued to run through several blocks and at one point was in the Dwight Baptist Church parking lot. Shots were fired over about six blocks, and at least eight officers were shot at, before officers talked the man into dropping his weapon.
May said Officer Mitchell James, a trained crisis negotiator, was working off-duty security at another job at the time and heard the radio traffic. He went to the scene and using his patrol car as cover, moved in close enough to take over negotiations started by another officer.
