A tow truck driver suffered life-threatening injuries after he was shot in the back of the neck while repossessing a vehicle early Friday morning in Talladega, police said.
Officers were dispatched to the 1300 block of Nimitz Avenue around 1:28 a.m. Friday on a call of shots fired, the department said.
Officers found a 2017 Dodge Ram 4500 tow truck in a wooded area off Nimitz Avenue. The truck had a vehicle attached to it and had left the road and struck a tree.
Police found the driver, only publicly identified as a 24-year-old Ohatchee man, suffering from gunshot wounds to the back of his neck.
The victim was taken to Citizens Baptist Medical Center before being transferred to UAB Hospital in Birmingham. Police characterized his injuries as life-threatening.
Detectives determined the driver went to an address on Nimitz Avenue to repossess a vehicle.
The vehicle’s owners confronted the driver and an argument ensued.
After words were exchanged, the two truck driver began to leave the location when the towed vehicle’s owners followed him, police said.
As the driver stopped on Nimitz Avenue, a single gunshot was fired from a shotgun, entering the truck and striking the tow truck driver in the back of the neck.
Police arrested 44-year-old Talladega resident Dexter Lamar Swain on charges of discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle and certain persons forbidden to possess a firearm.
Swain was taken to the Talladega County Jail, where he is being held on $200,000 bond.
Further information on the incident was unavailable.
