Search of Black Warrior River Underway for Missing University of Alabama Student

Update (4:30 p.m.): Rescue crews with Tuscaloosa Police Department and Tuscaloosa Fire Rescue Service are continue to search for Walker in the area of the Black Warrior River near the old Bama Belle dock.

Crews will continue their search until dark, and will resume at first light Tuesday morning if necessary.

Members of the Tuscaloosa Police Department and the Tuscaloosa Fire Rescue Service were combing the Black Warrior River Monday morning as the search continues for a University of Alabama student missing since spending Saturday night downtown.

Garrett Walker, a 20-year-old junior at the University, was last seen around 1:15 Sunday morning leaving the Gray Lady bar on Greensboro Avenue.

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Since then, Walker's phone and an article of his clothing have reportedly been recovered from the Tuscaloosa Riverwalk on the southern banks of the Black Warrior River.

The search Monday morning seemed centered on the dock of the Bama Belle riverboat.

Tuscaloosa Police Chief Brent Blankley and other city officials gathered on the dock, while other officers slowly scouted the area in a police department boat.

Around 8 a.m. Monday, the fire department was loading diving gear onto the boat and working to get an aerial drone in the air to search the water from the sky.

A small group of Walker's friends was gathered in the area Monday morning waiting for news on the search.

Police on the scene said any updates on the search will come from the department's public information officer, so stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread for more information on this case as soon as it becomes available.

Anyone with any information about Walker's disappearance or his current whereabouts is urged to call his mother Debbie Walker at 410-241-7407 or the Tuscaloosa Police Department at 205-349-2121.