Release the footage

Homewood Mayor Alex Wyatt continues to call on the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency to allow the family of Jabari Peoples to view body camera footage from the June 23 fatal shooting.

Peoples, 19, was a 2024 graduate of Aliceville High School where he was standout track athlete and football player.

He was shot to death that Monday night in June at Homewood Soccer Park.

Wyatt said the city legally doesn’t have the authority to release the footage because ALEA has taken over the investigation. Under the law, it controls access to evidence because it is the custodian of the footage.

The Homewood Police Department turned the investigation over to ALEA, which is standard policy for many officer-involved shootings.

ALEA denied the family’s request to see the footage, saying the release of the video would jeopardize the ongoing investigation.

Though Alabama provides a way for families to view body camera and dash cam videos, the same law also allows law enforcement to withhold the footage for investigative purposes.

Peoples had just finished his freshman year at Alabama A & M where he was studying computer information and criminal justice with hopes of becoming a law enforcement officer, specifically a detective. His funeral was held Saturday at Aliceville City Hall.

Help is on the way

Alabama has sent rescue teams from six more cities to help find people still missing from the July 4th floods in Texas.

Emergency responders from fire departments in Mountain Brook, Hoover, Guntersville, Vestavia Hills, Decatur and Fort Payne left for Texas on Saturday. They include two swift water teams specially trained and equipped to operate in large-scale flood zones.

The July 4th flooding along the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country has claimed at least 132 lives, including members of at least two families in Alabama.

Key endorsement

Jay Mitchell, who resigned from the Alabama Supreme Court to run for attorney general, got a boost to his campaign on Monday.

Progress PAC, the political action committee of the Business Council of Alabama, endorsed Mitchell.

He faces Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey and Katherine Robertson, chief counsel for Attorney General Steve Marshall, in the Republican primary.

The race is to succeed Attorney General Steve Marshall, who has held the office since 2017. Marshall is running for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Tommy Tuberville, who is running for governor.

Return of the GOAT?

SEC Media Days is underway in Atlanta, and major headlines are already making the rounds.

Former Crimson Tide quarterback and ESPN media personality Greg McElroy swirled speculation Monday morning, sparking a fuse that ignited into the story of the day.

During his show Monday, the former Alabama quarterback hinted that Nick Saban could return to coaching. Unsurprisingly, word spread quickly and much of the morning was spent by media and even some fellow coaches discussing the possibility of a Saban return.

As the story grew legs, McElroy was asked about it on the SEC Network later Monday morning. He tried to explain he didn’t think Saban would return to coaching but was simply relaying the fact that somebody important told him this.

It was dismissed by almost everyone who discussed it — even by the former QB who launched it — but it still dominated the day.

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