By Eric Fleischauer The Decatur Daily, Ala. (TNS) and Tribune Media Services
The Falkville man charged with shooting three people last Sunday, two of whom died, also shot at but missed a woman and her daughter, according to the woman’s father.
Joshua Lamar Knighten, 36, is in Morgan County Jail charged with capital murder in the shooting deaths of Mitchell Ray Beard, 62, and his 36-year-old stepson Marcus Ken Reed. He is also charged with attempted murder in the shooting of Sarah Conley, who received multiple gunshot wounds but was released Monday from Huntsville Hospital, according to authorities.
The two other people targeted in the attack were Reed’s fiancée and her daughter who both lived with him on Goodwin Road, according to Harald Hommers of Georgia.
“My daughter and my granddaughter were luckily able to take cover and not be shot, but (the suspect) was shooting actively at them,” Hommers said. “My daughter is distraught. She lost two people that were very close to her. Her family is here in (Georgia) and these two folks that lost their lives were her family in Alabama.”
Authorities haven’t mentioned the fiancée and her daughter in reports on the shooting. Asked if they were at the shooting scene, Morgan County sheriff’s spokesman Mike Swafford said only, “Other subjects were present.”
Deputies responded to the shooting at 59 S.E. Goodwin Road around 6 p.m. last Sunday. Soon after that, Hommers said, authorities called him.
“My wife and I came up there after speaking to investigators, and they said come and get your daughter, get her in a safe place. The crime scene tape, everything was still there. We didn’t get there until almost 2 in the morning because we live almost eight hours away. All I was concerned with was getting my daughter and granddaughter out of that area,” he said.
According to Morgan County property records, Beard owned the land where the shootings took place. Hommers said his understanding is the dispute leading to the shootings involved utilities, possibly water, and had not involved Reed or Beard.
“(Reed) was an innocent bystander. His father was an innocent bystander. They lost their lives over an idiot,” Hommers said.
According to an affidavit filed by the Sheriff’s Office, Knighten called 911 after the shooting and told the dispatcher, “I told them after I left out that door and nobody told me who had been stealing from my uncle, that they was ready to die.”
Beard owned a half-acre tract. Hommers said he had three rental properties on the property. Hommers said Knighten lived in a trailer with his uncle; an aunt of Knighten’s lived in the residence next to Knighten’s, identified by the Sheriff’s Office as Lot B; and Hommers’ daughter and Reed lived in a “tiny house” just a few feet from Lot B.
Immediately before the shooting, Hommers said, his daughter was sitting on the porch of her tiny house and Reed was inside the Lot B residence with Knighten and others.
“The shooter walked out of the house, went into his trailer. Marcus, my daughter’s boyfriend, he got up to try to walk out of the house because he knew something wasn’t right, and right when he walked to the door (Knighten) came and shot him,” Hommers said. “He got shot in the shooter’s aunt’s house.”
According to an affidavit by sheriff’s Investigator Caleb Brooks, deputies recovered one of Knighten’s 9mm handguns on the driveway and another in his residence.
Reed was airlifted to Huntsville Hospital, removed from life support Tuesday and died that day. Hommers said his daughter — who had planned to marry Reed in June — is struggling to cope.
‘I don’t understand’
So is Brandi Espy, a longtime friend of Reed’s who lives near Goodwin Road.
“I’m just having a hard time with it. I don’t understand why somebody would kill my best friend. I’m trying to be strong. I’ve got kids of my own and bless their hearts they’re trying to help me because they know it’s really hard,” she said. “But I can look in my front yard right now and just remember, just see us all three out there playing. Me, my little brother and Marcus. We all three grew up together. It’s heartbreaking, it really is. It’s devastating.”
Espy is the same age as Reed and attended Vinemont middle and high schools with him. She said Beard, Reed’s stepfather, “pretty much raised Marcus” after marrying Reed’s mother.
She said Reed’s mother died of cancer in November 2020.
“They were just good people. Why does this happen to good people, people that I grew up with and knew personally? Why would somebody do this?” Espy said.
Reed had worked at GE Appliances in Decatur since September and before then worked at Rusken Packaging in Cullman.
“He had a good job,” Espy said. “He was fixing to get married. It just doesn’t seem real to me. I’m hearing (his fiancée) is having a real hard time. He brought her by not long ago and she’s a real sweet girl.”
Espy said she and her husband also were friends with Reed’s stepfather.
“We let (Reed’s) dad borrow our wood splitter not long ago because he fixed it for us and he didn’t charge us anything for it. So we let him use it because he has wood heat,” Espy recalled. “That was the sort of stuff we would do for each other. Marcus and Mitchell were like that. If you were in need, they were there.”
She said she can’t understand why Reed or Beard was killed.
“I want to go down to the jail and talk to the man and want to know why he done it. I’m confused. I want to know why,” she said.
