Testimony Begins in Murder Trial Over 2020 Shooting Near the Tuscaloosa Strip

More than five and a half years — 2,000-plus days — after a bouncer at a bar on the Tuscaloosa Strip fatally shot a visiting football fan, the resultant murder trial is finally underway on Tuesday morning.

The defendant, Zachary Profozich, was a 23-year-old bouncer at the Bear Trap bar near the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa in October 2020.

The victim, 19-year-old Schuyler Bradley, had traveled to Alabama from Bloomington, Indiana, with some of his younger fraternity brothers to watch the Tide take on the Georgia Bulldogs in Bryant-Denny Stadium that weekend. This was the very strange 2020 football season, when attendance at games and crowds in the city were limited by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Bradley and his friends, Mitchell Cross and Tommy Wahlstrom, were walking east on University Boulevard, traveling from Innisfree to Waffle House at about 1:30 a.m. on Friday, October 16th.

On the way, their group passed the bouncer, Profozich, and his visiting friend Griffin Ridgeway as the two of them walked downtown after a day at the Bear Trap on the Strip.

As the groups passed each other on University Boulevard, there was apparently some physical contact between its members - a "shoulder check," as attorneys described it in court Tuesday.

Words were exchanged, and the groups stopped to turn and face one another instead of continuing to walk in opposite directions. That turned physical, and in a matter of seconds, Profozich drew a .357-caliber revolver and shot Bradley one time, in his stomach. The bullet ripped through his organs and lodged in his spine, not punching through his back.

Bradley fell straight backward, hitting the back of his head as he collapsed to the ground, and Profozich and Ridgeway turned and walked away west, continuing on toward downtown Tuscaloosa while the stunned Indiana crew called 911 to get help for Bradley.

Doctors at DCH could not stop Bradley's bleeding, and he died in the hospital the following day. Profozich allegedly went home after the shooting, which happened at about 1:30 a.m. on a Friday morning, and went to sleep.

He was arrested the next day and eventually charged with murder after Bradley died, but was released on bond the same day. Later that week, a district judge OK'd a request to allow Profozich to move to California and live with his parents until the murder case went to trial - that was more than five and a half years ago.

The long period between the shooting and this trial, combined with Profozich's many years in California instead of jail, has drawn attention and publicity to the case, including several previous reports on the Thread.

After a long day of voir dire and jury selection on Monday, the trial got started in earnest on Tuesday morning. Profozich is charged with murder and carrying a handgun without a permit, which was still illegal at the time. His jury consists of six white men, six black women, one white woman and one black man.

Lead prosecutor Thomas Marshall, an assistant district attorney, said in opening statements that the shooting was "unprovoked and unjustified," and that Profozich was "unbothered" after firing the shot that killed Schuyler Bradley.

They said Profozich was the initial aggressor, drew a gun and shot an unarmed teenager, then walked away from the scene instead of rendering aid or calling for police. He also allegedly dropped the gun in a yard near the scene as he fled the area.

The defense is being led by Mary Turner and Joel Sogol, who portrayed Bradley and his friends as instigators who were illegally drunk despite being just 18 and 19 years old at the time. They said after the "shoulder check" as the groups passed, the Indiana crew shouted insults and Profozich and Ridgeway, which goaded them back into a confrontation.

They claimed Bradley was being overprotective of his fraternity brothers and threatened to kill Profozich after one of the younger men with him, Mitchell Cross, got shoved to the ground.

Sogol's opening statement was profanity-laced as he told jurors that Bradley's group called Profozich and Ridgeway "simps" and "pussies," and threatened to "beat the fucking shit" out of them when things got physical.

Sogol claimed Profozich got legal advice from an attorney to go home and go to sleep after the shooting, and just talk to the police in the morning. He said Profozich was crying all night long and praying for Bradley to survive the shooting, but insisted that the 23-year-old felt like his life was in danger when he drew the revolver and fired.

After opening statements, the state has called three witnesses before the court took a lunch break on Tuesday.

They called Jimmy Horner, a Tuscaloosa Police investigator who was first on the scene of the shooting in October 2020. Tommy Wahlstrom, one of the friends who came to Alabama with Bradley, also testified. The last witness on the stand before the break was Joseph Hornyak, an eyewitness who was a passenger in a vehicle driving by the scene just as the shooting occurred.

We'll have more from those witnesses and those who testify on Tuesday afternoon after the court adjourns for the day.

For more exclusive coverage of crime and courts in West Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.