Jury Convicts Tuscaloosa Man of Murder for Deadly 2023 Shooting

A jury has convicted a Tuscaloosa man of murder for a fatal 2023 shooting on Queen City Avenue in Tuscaloosa, District Attorney Hays Webb announced on Friday.

As the Thread previously reported, Reginal Dewayne Peoples, Jr was charged with murder in March 2023 for the killing of 37-year-old Rufus Tyrone Carter IV.

Carter was found at the scene of a car crash on Queen City Avenue and 17th Street in Tuscaloosa, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, and died at the hospital soon after.

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Even as the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit was processing the scene of the accident, then-36-year-old Reginal Peoples arrived at the Tuscaloosa Police Department and allegedly admitted to shooting Carter.

Peoples is married to the mother of Carter's daughter.

In court documents, investigators said Peoples told them he had been at his home on Queen City Avenue when Carter showed up and started an argument - he allegedly admitted to then opening fire on Carter, who was struck multiple times and crashed fleeing the scene.

Peoples was charged with murder, jailed, and released on bond the next month, but that bond was revoked in September 2023 after he was arrested again and charged with trafficking fentanyl and a series of other drug crimes. He has been jailed since then.

A little more than three years after the shooting, Peoples was convicted on Friday morning at the conclusion of a weeklong jury trial in the courtroom of Circuit Judge Daniel Pruet.

DA Webb said Peoples was also found guilty of Peoples was found guilty of discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling and reckless endangerment.

"Assistant District Attorney Ashley Ross, Assistant District Attorney Monica Rodgers, and Assistant District Attorney Kaelan Bradford presented the case on behalf of the State of Alabama," Webb wrote. "Our law enforcement partners developed strong evidence that led to this conviction and ensured justice was served."

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