A federal judge on Monday sentenced a man accused of a mass shooting on New Year’s Eve to the maximum 10-year sentence for a federal gun violation.
Thomas Earl Thomas Jr, 23, of Mobile, faces charges of murder and assault in state court related to the incident in downtown Mobile at 11:14 p.m. that evening. He has pleaded not guilty to those offenses, but hein April to illegal possession of a machine gun conversion device commonly called a “Glock switch.”
The shooting occurred as a large crowd gathered for the Moon Pie drop to celebrate the new year. Federal prosecutors played surveillance video showing the shooting and the mayhem that followed. Video from the Mobile Downtown Alliance office shows a man named Morgan Peters walking up to Thomas, who later told investigators that that Peters threatened him, according to testimony Monday by Mobile police Detective Julius Nettles.
Nettles testified that the defendant’s Glock had been equipped with an extended magazine and a “switch” that turned it from a semi-automatic gun into a fully automatic weapon allowing rapid fire with one pull of the trigger. An agent from the Buruea of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives testified that it would take just two seconds to shoot 25 rounds from an extended clip.
“It was unlikely, based off the surveillance video, based off where that gun was situated, he was able to pull the gun, point that gun and then after he was shot in the head, put that gun back in his pants,” he said.“Wantonly shooting into an innocent crowd, Thomas made his crime even more dangerous and serious by using an illegal machinegun,” he said in a prepared statement.
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