By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
An Atmore man who shot at city police, then held his live-in girlfriend hostage for four hours on February 10, was denied bond under provisions of Alabama’s Aniah’s Law during a February 14 hearing.
According to court documents and published reports, District Court Judge Eric Coale refused to grant bond to 46-year-old Francis Tyrone Blount, who has a prior conviction for a violent crime. Blount is also accused of biting a Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) SWAT team officer during the end stages of the hostage situation.
Aniah’s Law is an Alabama law that allows judges to deny bail to suspects charged with violent crimes. The law, passed in November 2022, is named after Aniah Blanchard, a Southern Union State Community College student who was kidnapped and killed in 2019.
During the hearing, an Atmore police detective testified that Blount and the woman he held hostage have been involved in an “off-and-on” relationship for about 10 years. They had argued on February 10, and the woman called her mother, who called police and asked for a welfare check on her daughter.
Police responded at about 5:45 p.m. Initial reports were that Blount came out of the house, his gun blazing, when the first policeman arrived at the Brown Street residence where the couple lived. Instead, the detective testified, the first officer to arrive knocked on the door, and Blount opened it.
As Blount and the officer talked, the woman tried to escape through the doorway. Blount “shoved her to the floor and slammed the door,” then began arguing with police. He finally gave the policeman three seconds to leave the property. After he verbally counted to three, he “came outside the house and started firing.”
Police said Blount fired at least eight shots from a 9mm Glock handgun in the officer’s direction before going back inside and barricading the door. That brought dozens of law enforcement vehicles and an estimated 100 officers from numerous state and area agencies to the scene.
As Blount threatened to kill his hostage, the police and himself, the woman made another attempt to escape but slipped on cooking oil that was on the floor, the APD investigator said. Whether Blount had poured the oil there to thwart such an attempt was not discussed during the hearing.
Hostage negotiators and at least one member of Blount’s family continued to talk with him by cell phone, and the family member finally talked him into releasing the woman around 9:45 p.m. About two hours later, the BCSO SWAT unit fired tear gas into the house, forcing Blount outside, where he was arrested on one count each of attempted murder (on a police officer), first-degree kidnapping, third-degree domestic violence (harassment) and being a certain person forbidden to own or possess a firearm. The last charge was magnified when police searched the house and found three .22-caliber rifles, a 12-gauge shotgun and a .243-caliber rifle.
Blount reportedly bit a SWAT team member’s hand while he was being cuffed, and an additional charge of assault on a police officer was lodged against him.
Public Defender Wade Hartley represented Blount at the Aniah’s Law hearing.