After a mass shooting Oct. 4 in downtown Montgomery, Mayor Steven Reed pushed back against the idea of a need for “militarizing our streets” by bringing the National Guard to the city as a solution.

Reed said repeatedly at an Oct. 5 news conference that the shooting was not indicative of a bigger problem within the city. “We aren’t gonna let one or two bad apples spoil the bunch,” Reed said. “We’re gonna find those that are rotten, and we’ll get them the hell out of here.”

Some state officials expressed a different take. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, that last night’s events “underscore, once again, that our capital city is in crisis.”

“I continue to be troubled by the city leadership’s stubborn refusal to acknowledge that they have a serious problem,” the statement reads. “While I believe that local law enforcement is doing the best they can, the People of Montgomery deserve leaders who are competent, accountable, and committed to restoring law and order.”

Reed said in response to this concern that he thinks “it’s very easy to sit back while you’re watching college football and talk about something you don’t know about.

“If the Attorney General wants to sit with me and talk about what we’ve been doing, I’d be more than happy to sit with him,” Reed said. “… But I don’t need anybody lecturing me about crime. I’ve had a gun pointed at my face. … I will never forget that, and these people last night will never forget what happened to them. I don’t need any sideline commentary from the state’s top law enforcement official.”

Bringing in the National Guard

In addition to city leaders noting that the blame falls on those who pulled the trigger to begin with, Reed emphasized that bringing the National Guard to Montgomery is “not the answer to our challenges.”

President Donald Trump sent 800 National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 11 to fight crime. Since then, the Trump administration has publicly discussed interest in sending the National Guard to other cities, such as New Orleans, Memphis, Portland, Chicago and Detroit, among others.

“As it relates to conversations about militarizing our streets, I am firmly against that, 100% percent,” Reed said. “That’s not the place for our National Guard. … I don’t think that’s the best use of our federal manpower. … I think our law enforcement professionals can handle that along with our community leaders and other initiatives we have going on that are already showing our progress in that area.”

Reed also said that, though there’s “certainly more work to do,” he believes that local law enforcement and community leaders can handle Montgomery on their own, and emphasized that distinguishing between the “narrative that some may want to drive” about the city is “important.”

“We believe that, obviously, what we’ve been doing has been working, and there’s certainly more work to do,” Reed said. “That’s why we invested more money in this recent budget for increased technology, for other crime initiatives. You saw downtown, we had barricades and other things up there. That’s a change. 
We’re adapting to where we are right now… and trying to be preventative in what we do.”

Montgomery Police Chief James Graboys said that officers responded very quickly to the shooting. Near the scene at the time of the shooting — around 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 4 — there were “five [officers] within walking distance.”

Graboys emphasized that the five officers nearby the scene “does not include the folks who also responded in their vehicles” or personnel from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the County Sheriff’s Office or “other federal partners.”

“This was not a manpower issue, we had plenty of manpower. … We had a huge response on this and a very quick response,” Graboys said. “Something you got to understand with these types of situations, is that when you know how fast a magazine can be emptied out of an automatic handgun, that incident might’ve only taken less than 60 seconds. … This is an issue of the individuals who pull those triggers, they hurt those people, that’s who is at fault for this and that’s who we are going after. … Our response on this was very timely and we brought a lot of force to bear.”

The Montgomery Police Department said they believe that at least two victims at the Oct. 4 shooting were armed, as multiple weapons — as well as multiple shell casing from different weapons — were recovered from the scene. Police said they believe one individual involved in the shoot out was “targeted” and returned fire, leading multiple people in the crowd to pull out weapons and also start firing.

Sarah Clifton covers business for the Montgomery Advertiser. You can reach her at [email protected] or follow her on X @sarahgclifton. To support her work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser