Defense offers different story in May Day mass shooting: ‘He did not shoot and kill those two people’

BAY MINETTE, Ala. ( WKRG ) — The defense is offering a different explanation of what happened in the mass shooting that left three dead on May Day.

“He did not shoot and kill those two people!” said the defense.

Robert Brown, Jr. is charged with the murder of Michael Anderson Jr. and Chequita Ewing. Witnesses told investigators Brown fired the first shots that started the mass shooting at the May Day celebration in Stockton.

Defense Attorney Chase Dearman says Brown admitted to investigators he was armed with an AR15 with the stock removed but someone else fired the first shot.

“He tried to return fire but his gun jammed, moments after that he was shot,” says Dearman.

Testimony revealed investigators recovered 48 shell casings after the shooting but no .223 casings were recovered that would have been fired from an AR-style weapon.

“I believe forensics are going to back it up,” says Dearman. “Somebody in a wheelchair had a .40 caliber weapon and if you noticed both victims that are deceased, the bullet fragments are .40 caliber.”

But it was Brown, according to testimony, who was looking to get even after being hit in the head with a bottle at a gathering a week earlier.

“Multiple witnesses on the scene who all corroborate each other who say that he was the initial shooter,” says Assistant District Attorney Patrick Doggett.

“Every single one of those witnesses are part of the Sawmill Murder Gang,” says Dearman. “They are all in a gang together, every single one of them so all the witness testimony they were describing in court came literally from a gang.”

Prosecutors say based on the evidence collected so far Brown and Mack Adams are responsible for the deaths of Ewing and Anderson.

“Any claims by the defense at this point are just claims,” adds Doggett.

Dearman says there are also jailhouse phone call recordings between his Brown and his girlfriend that tell a different story. Prosecutors have not heard those recordings yet.

In the meantime, Brown is being held without bond under Aniah’s Law. The case now goes to a grand jury.

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