Father has history of domestic violence

MOBILE, Alabama (WALA) - A Mobile man accused of shooting his son is out on bond. The suspect who was charged with first degree domestic violence has a long criminal history. FOX10 News has also learned that authorities believe he was under the influence at the time of the shooting.

Authorities say Travis Hawkins shot his 17-year-old son in the chest during an argument at their home on Bourgeois Circle. District Attorney Ashley Rich said Hawkins is out on bond for the felony charge because of very specific reasons.

"The only case where they can hold a criminal defendant in jail without a bond is on a capital murder case or if the defendant had previously been on bond when he committed a new offense and he was not on bond when he committed this new offense," explained Rich.

However, Hawkins' bond does have stipulations.

"The judge issued a bond of $50,000 with no contact to the family member that had been shot," Rich said.

Neighbors felt like that was a good thing because of Hawkins' history.

"He does have an extensive history of substance abuse charges as well as alcohol related charges. He also has one prior offense which was an attempted murder. However that was in 2000 and the state could not go forward because the only witness was his wife and she refused to testify against him, so we were not able to go forward with the charges in that case," added Rich.

FOX10 News asked Rich who the attempted murder was on?

"Another family member. I'm not sure what family member it was, I think it was his own child but I'm not sure," Rich said.

Fortunately, the 17-year-old involved in the shooting is expected to make a full recovery and Rich said she will make sure to get justice.

"We will do everything in our power to make sure he is fully prosecuted so that we can get him under control. There appears to be some type of substance abuse problem and we will look into that and make sure that any plea negotiations will include some time to treatment for that," said Rich.

Hawkins has a preliminary hearing set for February 9 in district court.