Shooting by Police Ignites Violence in Alabama

MOBILE, Ala. —  At least 30 people were arrested and an officer was wounded when sniper gunfire and several hours of random violence erupted at a housing project after police killed a man and wounded a woman at a nightclub.

Police said the area was brought under control about 4 a.m. Wednesday. State troopers were dispatched to the city, and police said the area had returned to calm.

Authorities said the trouble began Tuesday night when officers received a report of a gunman at a lounge. A police statement said two officers went to the club and saw a man with a gun, yelling as he backed out of the club.

The officers shot the man, killing him, after he refused orders to drop the gun and turned toward them, police spokesman Tom Jennings said. He said the man had fired a shot at the club.

At a news conference Wednesday, Police Chief Harold Johnson said the woman was wounded by a stray police bullet.

Police Maj. Wilbur Williams said a rumor had spread Tuesday night that police had killed both the man and the woman, and a crowd gathered. “The situation deteriorated swiftly,” Williams said.

Officers sent to the scene came under automatic weapons fire from the nearby housing project.

One officer was wounded in the arm and several patrol cars were hit by bullets.

Killed was 36-year-old Darryl Hubbard, an unemployed shipyard worker. Betty Ann Williams, 44, was in guarded condition at a hospital.

Police said the incident was unrelated to rioting last week in Los Angeles, but one resident said youths in the housing project were copying what they had seen in recent days in Los Angeles.

There has been scattered violence in Birmingham, Ala., and Huntsville, Ala., following the rioting that erupted in Los Angeles after four white police officers were found not guilty in the beating of Rodney G. King.