Mobile New Year’s Eve shooting suspect pleads guilty to federal gun charges

Mobile New Year’s Eve shooting suspect pleads guilty to federal gun charges

The Mobile man suspected of killing a man and injuring nine others during New Year’s Eve celebrations downtown pleaded guilty to federal gun charges in connection with the shooting, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Thomas Earl Thomas Jr., 22, of Mobile, pleaded guilty in federal court in Mobile to illegally possessing a machinegun, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama, which covers Mobile.

Thomas possessed and fired a .40-caliber Glock pistol equipped with an extended magazine and an illegal machinegun-conversion device known as a “Glock switch” during New Year’s Eve, according to court documents.

A man was killed and nine people were injured when gunfire rang out in a crowded section of Dauphin Street near South Jackson Street.

In pleading guilty to the federal charges, Thomas admitted that he lied to homicide detectives about possessing and firing the gun. The gunfire was captured on surveillance video, prosecutors said.

Thomas also admitted to buying the gun at a Mobile gun show weeks before the shooting and that he knew it was illegally modified with the Glock switch.

The suspect also admitted to never registering the machinegun with a national registry as required by law.

Thomas is scheduled to be sentenced on the federal charges on July 24. He faces up to 10 years in prison.