Witness: victim shot in drive-by over girlfriend

CALCEDEAVER, Ala. (WALA) - UPDATE, Jan. 27 8:30 p.m.: Mobile County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested a man after they said he shot another man in the Calcedeaver area over a dispute involving a girlfriend.

The MCSO said Jeffery Sullivan shot Ronald Byrd, 63, in the abdomen on Sunday afternoon during a drive-by shooting on Red Fox Road.  Sullivan is charged with first-degree assault.

Sixty-three-year-old Roland Byrd was taken to USA Medical Center via LifeFlight Helicopter Sunday afternoon suffering from a gunshot. Family members say he underwent surgery on Sunday and is in critical condition.

The MCSO said Jeffery Sullivan shot Byrd in the abdomen during a drive-by shooting related to a dispute about a woman on Red Fox Rd. on the Mowa Choctaw reservation.

“Roland Byrd, he walked out to the truck and when he walked out to the truck, the man just started firing,” a witness said. “He come up waved the gun out of the window (and) just started spraying.”

Witnesses said more shots were fired before the two suspects inside the vehicle drove off, but they weren’t gone for long.

“He went up the road and came back and shot about four or five times then came back two or three more times but he never did shoot again, he just kept riding back through here,” a witness recalled.  

Deputies said witnesses identified 52-year-old Sullivan as the shooter and told them he was driving a red truck. When the truck was pulled over on Highway 96, authorities detained Sullivan, as well as his brother.

They found a .380 handgun in the vehicle, which matched a shell casing found at the scene of the shooting.

Sullivan’s brother told Citronelle PD that the dispute was over a girlfriend, but the suspect refused to speak with detectives. Sullivan is charged with first-degree assault. The brother was released.