Jury Convicts Shooter of Murder for 2020 Killing on the Tuscaloosa Strip

A Tuscaloosa County jury has convicted a former bouncer of murder for the October 2020 killing of a 19-year-old from Indiana who was visiting town for a football game.

As the Thread has extensively reported, the verdict comes after a few days of testimony and closing arguments on Thursday morning in the trial of Zachary Profozich, who fatally shot Schuyler Bradley more than five years ago.

Profozich and his attorneys never argued that he did not fire the killing shot, but instead said that he was provoked and afraid and shot Bradley in fear for his own life.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, prosecutors called 12 witnesses to testify for the state, and defense attorneys Mary Turner, Joel Sogol and J. Stephen Salter called three people to the stand, including the shooter, Profozich himself. You can read the crux of the testimony in this week's reports from the Thread.

Closing arguments began on Thursday morning, and the 12-member jury began deliberations a few minutes before 11 a.m.

The Night of the Shooting

Bradley and two pledges from his fraternity drove to Tuscaloosa from Bloomington, Indiana, on Thursday, October 15th, 2020, and the deadly shooting happened several hours after they arrived, at about 1:30 a.m. Friday.

The 18- and 19-year-olds from Indiana spent the evening drinking at the apartment of a friend and two Tuscaloosa bars before beginning to walk east on University Boulevard to go from Innisfree to Waffle House on the Strip.

As they traveled, they passed then-22-year-old Zach Profozich and his friend Griffin Ridgeway, who were moving west, from the Bear Trap bar on the Strip to Roxy's bar in downtown Temerson Square after seven or eight hours of drinking.

The five young men, split into their two groups, passed each other in the 1700 block of University Boulevard in front of a home between the Strip district and downtown Tuscaloosa proper.

There was allegedly some kind of shoulder check or other physical contact between members of the groups as they passed, and then the sides started "chirping" at each other as they all kept walking.

Ridgeway and Profozich then stopped walking west and turned to face the Indiana crew, with Ridgeway flipping them the middle finger before both men advanced toward the three visiting football fans.

The exact sequence of events that followed was not captured on nearby security cameras, but one of Bradley's friends was shoved by Griffin Ridgeway, who then turned and walked away west.

Profozich, though, stayed near the other group, drew a .357 Magnum revolver and shot Bradley in the stomach.

Profozich and Ridgeway fled the scene, and Profozich dropped the revolver in a yard nearby before getting a ride back to the apartment he shared with his girlfriend and going to bed.

The Arguments

Prosecutors argued the shooting was unprovoked, unjustified and that Profozich was unbothered after the killing, calmly walking away instead of rendering aid or calling 911.

On the stand in his own defense, Profozich testified that he heard Bradley threaten him, saying "I should beat the shit out of you," and/or "I ought to fucking kill you."

He claimed Bradley shoved him after Ridgeway pushed over one of Bradley’s smaller fraternity brothers, and that Profozich drew his revolver and shouted "Stop!” before he pulled the trigger.

He testified that he believed Bradley was moving to draw a gun of his own, although the 19-year-old was unarmed when he was shot — prosecutors showed Bradley was only carrying a wallet, phone and a bag of Flamin’ Hot Funyuns that night.

In closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney Leslie LaTurno said Ridgeway and Profozich were the initial aggressors of the altercation, who turned around after the "shoulder check,” walked back toward the other group and made the altercation physical.

Then, she said, Profozich drew a gun and shot Bradley in the stomach, which would kill him about 24 hours later.

"Zach never saw Schuyler with a gun or reach for one, because he didn't have one," LaTurno said. "Zach Profozich was the initial aggressor, and this was not manslaughter — Zach Profozich was not provoked."

Defense attorney Mary Turner closed arguments, asking the jury not to convict Profozich and not to judge him in hindsight, but to put themselves in the heat of the moment back in October 2020.

She said Bradley and his two friends were illegally drunk despite being too young to buy alcohol, confrontational and insulting. Because the shoving and shooting happened out of view of nearby cameras, Turner said she believed a lot happened in that blind spot that could exonerate Profozich on a self-defense argument.

"The state has the burden to prove that Zach didn't act in self-defense, and this was justified if he believed that he was in trouble, or at risk of imminent harm," Turner said. "Zach takes responsibility for what he did, but he feared his life was in danger. This was justified, provoked, and he acted lawfully. Zach is not guilty."

The Verdict

After deliberating for about three hours and watching surveillance footage frame by frame, the 12-member jury agreed with the prosecutors and convicted Zach Profozich, now 28 years old, of murder.

After two alternates were dismissed from the 14-member juror pool on Wednesday, the final makeup of the panel was six Black women, five white men and one Black man.

Following his conviction, Profozich will return to the courtroom of Circuit Judge Allen May for a separate sentencing hearing to decide his punishment, which should come in 30 - 45 days. The loved ones of both the victim and the shooter will testify about their individual impacts before the sentence is rendered.

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