Witnesses recount taking cover during New Year’s Eve shooting downtown

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - One person in custody following a mass shooting New Year’s Eve night in downtown Mobile. One person was killed and nine others were injured. Mobile police are starting the new year with a homicide investigation.

Now we’re hearing from witnesses who were amid the gunfire.

It’s certainly not the way the Port City planned to ring in 2023. Gunfire on Dauphin Street just ahead the MoonPie Drop.

“All of a sudden -- several hundred people -- started running. We heard a couple of pops... Then a big crowd coming running towards us,” said one man.

MPD says a 24-year-old man shot and killed and 9 others were injured in the mass shooting.

“The perpetrators and the deceased -- may have been known to one another,” said Chief Paul Prine, Mobile Police.

Thousands there to see “Third Eye Blind” take the stage -- including former FOX10 employee Carly Bragg, who like a lot of people didn’t realize it was gunfire at first.

“We started hearing a pop pop pop sound. I just assumed it was fireworks and someone was super close to the streets doing it a little early,” said Bragg.

Seconds later, her boyfriend realizes it was shots fired and pulls her into a nearby corridor to take cover.

“My boyfriend and my sister’s husband, my brother-in-law, and another girl and her boyfriend -- they just followed in right behind us into this hiding spot and they could peak out and see somebody laying on the ground, so we were like oh God what do we do. As we’re standing in this corridor people are just running past us,” recalled Bragg.

Homicide invesitgators eventually took over. Mobile Police Chief Paul Prine gave this update on scene:

“We detained several witnesses. We got some really good information, but we also detained several individuals -- I’m not sure if they were persons of interest so we’ll stop short of saying that. This is a fluid situation. It’s been contained -- but nonetheless we’ve got a lot of work cut out for us tonight,” said Prine.

Sunday evening one person was in custody being charged with murder and will be booked into Metro Jail following medical treatment.

Meanwhile, the chaos continued well past the MoonPie Drop a couple of blocks away. Many people mistook the fireworks finale as another round of shots.

For Bragg and her crew, it’s still very surreal it happened in the first place in the heart of the city she loves.

“I really hope this isn’t something that is going to continue and that people can sort of get a grip on that sort of thing and not take their aggression out where there are so many people -- and so many lives could have been lost in that one instance -- there are so many people that got hurt from that,” she said.

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