Alabama man accused of possessing machine gun in Tuskegee shooting, complaint says

TUSKEGEE, Ala. — A man charged in federal court Thursday with illegally possessing a machine gun was driving through a crowd at Tuskegee University when gunshots rang out from the car in a shooting that left one person dead and dozens injured, according to court documents.

Jeremiah Williams, 20, was arrested Thursday and faces a federal charge of possession of a machine gun. Williams was charged after a months-long investigation unrelated to the Tuskegee shooting, but court documents related to his arrest show he was at school the night of the shooting and reveal new details about the chaotic and deadly homecoming party that shook the small campus in early November.

Jaquez Myrick, 25, was arrested the night of the shooting after he was found at the university with a Glock pistol equipped with a machine gun conversion device. Neither Myrick nor Williams is accused of shooting anyone. It is still unclear who is responsible for the death of La’Tavion Johnson, 18, of Troy, Alabama, who the coroner said was not a student at Tuskegee.

Lawyers for Williams and Myrick did not respond to requests for comment.

Law enforcement began investigating Williams over the summer after a search warrant revealed Williams and another man repeatedly discussed the manufacture and distribution of machine gun conversion devices via text message, according to a complaint written by a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Bureau of Tobacco. Firearms and Explosives. In late September, machine gun conversion devices and a 3D printer apparently used to produce them were seized from the man’s home in Montgomery.

A federal search warrant at Williams’ residence in Montgomery on Thursday turned up “an AR-type firearm” with signs that it had previously been equipped with a machine gun conversion device, the complaint said.

Before his arrest, Williams posted photos and videos online of himself driving a white Dodge Charger in Tuskegee, the complaint said. Court documents describe at least one video showing the car moving through the crowd as gunshots rang out. The complaint did not say whether the gunshots came from Williams’ car.

“Thank God we were okay,” Williams captioned the video, according to the complaint.

A witness described the first gunshots from a car driven by Williams, the complaint said. It’s unclear exactly what caused the gunfire, but an eyewitness said the gunshots “appeared to be an attempt to clear a path” so the vehicle could pass through the crowd at the party.

The complaint did not say who specifically fired the gun from Williams’ car.

Williams denies firing his gun the night of the shooting. When asked if the passengers in his vehicle fired their weapons, Williams said he “couldn’t know because he was watching where he was driving,” the complaint states.

Weapons equipped with conversion devices have been used in several mass shootings last year, including an attack that left four people dead at a 16-year-old boy’s birthday party in Alabama and an attack that left six people dead in a bar area in Sacramento, California.

“It takes two or three seconds to insert some of these devices into a firearm to instantly transform the firearm into a machine gun,” Steve Dettelbach, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said in the AP report. weapons earlier this year.

After the conflict, Tuskegee University President Dr. Mark A. Brown canceled classes and announced new security measures for the campus, including additional campus security guards, new cameras and permanent metal detectors. Brown also replaced the head of security on campus.

“It is our responsibility to ensure the safety of the campus, and we are continuing to ensure that our students can successfully complete the education they came here for,” Brown said at a news conference Thursday.