MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – A dispute between defendant Brandon Levon Ely Jr. and another man led to multiple gunshots from one car to another in February, an investigator testified at a preliminary hearing Monday.
Mobile police Detective Jermaine Rogers testified that Ely, 20, and five of his friends decided to go bowling on Feb. 15. Rogers said the group followed another group that left the bowling alley and followed the other vehicle as it turned left from Schillinger Road on to Cottage Road.
Rogers testified that Ely told the police that the car he was riding in pulled alongside the other vehicle and that others in his car fired at the sedan, killing 19-year-old Keith Fredericks and wounding two others. Ely denied firing any shots, the detective said.
Mobile County District Judge Spiro Cheriogotis found sufficient evidence to send murder and attempted murder charges to a grand jury.
Rogers identified the other occupants of the car by their nicknames. None of them have been charged, but Mobile County Assistant District Attorney Madison Davis said it remains an ongoing investigation.
Rogers testified that surveillance video from the AMF Bowling Alley matches Ely’s account, showing a white car leaving at about 11:30 pm He said investigators recovered four different kinds of ammunition, matching Ely’s description. That indicates that the bullets came from a firearm shooting 7.62mm ammunition, a Glock 19, a Glock 9 and a .40-caliber weapon.
Rogers said the investigation revealed that someone with the nickname “Shank” was involved. He said police detained Ely after the department’s street enforcement team reported that he went by that name. Police formally charged him in April.
Under cross-examination by defense attorney Chase Dearman, Rogers said there is no indication that anyone from Fredericks’ car was shooting. But Dearman told FOX10 News that it is his understanding that people in both cars were shooting. He also questioned whether the police had cause to take his client into custody.
“The police did not seem to make it that he had a role in anything other than sitting in the car and then told the police,” he said. “But I am curious how the police, in modern-day time, can pick up someone, put handcuffs on ’em, take him somewhere based upon a rumor.”
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