By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
Although Atmore police are not yet ready to release the names of their suspects, Police Chief Chuck Brooks confirmed this week that numerous individuals have been arrested in connection with the April 28 hail of gunfire that awakened residents of several neighborhoods.
“We’ve made several arrests in that case,” Brooks told local reporters. “We’re not ready to release the names yet because there are a lot of juveniles involved and we’re still working on the investigation.”
The first rounds of gunfire erupted shortly after midnight, according to several residents who live along Medical Park Drive, McRae Street and Horner Street. APD patrol officers also reported hearing the shots.
Police set up a concentrated patrol in the area and shortly after 2 a.m. made contact on East Horner Street with a vehicle in which the two occupants reported that someone in another vehicle had earlier fired several shots at them as they cruised the area.
An APD investigator recovered more than a dozen spent cartridges from a .40-caliber weapon along the residential street and later discovered that a vehicle parked in the yard of a nearby home had been hit by at least two of the errant bullets.
Brooks said investigators hoped to close their probe “soon,” after agents of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force help make sure that all who took part in the incident are in local custody.
“One of (the suspects) ran, and he’s gone to Georgia,” the police chief said. “I’ll have the marshals on him, so it probably won’t be too long.”