Four people are dead and three others are clinging to life after a wave of shootings tore through Alabama’s capital city between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning, Montgomery Police Chief Jim Graboys said at a Sunday press conference.
Officers responded to seven separate shooting incidents in roughly 48 hours.
The dead
- Martavious Langford, 28, shot Friday at 12:33 p.m. in the 1000 block of West South Boulevard. He died at the hospital. Adrian Jackson, 30, has been charged with capital murder and booked into the Montgomery County Detention Facility.
- Andre Smith, 35, shot Saturday at 2:23 a.m. in the 900 block of Grove Street. He was pronounced dead at the scene. A woman wounded in the same incident was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
- Pendaris Williams, 48, shot Sunday at 12:00 a.m. in the 1000 block of Day Street Road. Pronounced dead at the scene.
Tory Kelly Jr., 21, shot Sunday at 12:03 a.m. in the 6300 block of Weirs Ferry Road. Pronounced dead at the scene.
The wounded
- A juvenile girl walked into a hospital with a graze wound shortly before 1 a.m. Saturday. The shooting occurred in the 2600 block of North Belt Drive.
- An adult man was rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries Saturday at 7:45 p.m. after a shooting in the 4000 block of Rosa L. Parks Avenue. Graboys said the preliminary investigation indicates the incident was domestic-related.
- An adult man was hospitalized with life-threatening wounds Saturday at 10:26 p.m. after a shooting in the 3400 block of Fountain Circle.
The weekend pushes Montgomery’s homicide count to 14 for the year.
In his press conference, Graboys didn’t keep the blame inside his own department. He told reporters his officers keep arresting violent offenders already out on “bond, probation or bail for other violent crimes”
“We’re the most visible part, and we’re also the part that goes out and tells the public, this is who committed this crime, and this is who we’re charging,” Graboys said.
“But then the rest of that public safety piece in reducing crime also has to belong to the legislature with the laws they pass, and also to the judges with the decisions that they make in regards to these suspects that we are arresting, because we can arrest them, but it’s the justice system that’s going to hold them, so those things need to go into it.”
The carnage lands just days after State Sen. Will Barfoot’s (R-Pike Road) bill to force Montgomery to hire more police officers died quietly on the final day of the 2026 legislative session
SB298 would have required Class 3 municipalities — Montgomery and Huntsville — to maintain a minimum of two full-time officers per 1,000 residents, with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency authorized to step in if cities failed to comply.
Huntsville already meets the threshold. Montgomery does not. Barfoot has estimated MPD employs between 220 and 230 officers — well below the roughly 380 to 400 the bill would have required.
Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed and Chief Graboys had both opposed the measure, calling it state overreach and an unfunded mandate.
Barfoot spent the entire 2026 session warning that Montgomery’s staffing shortage was a public safety emergency. This weekend, the capital city paid the price.
Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.
