Both Sides Rest in Murder Trial Over 2020 Killing in Tuscaloosa

The shooter took the stand in his own defense and both sides rested their cases in a Tuscaloosa County murder trial stemming from an October 2020 shooting on Wednesday.

As the Thread has extensively reported, it was the second day of testimony in the long-awaited murder trial of Zachary Profozich, a former bouncer who fatally shot a visiting football fan near the Tuscaloosa Strip five and a half years ago.

The victim was 19-year-old Schuyler (pronounced Skylar) Bradley, who was visiting Tuscaloosa from Indiana University in Bloomington with his fraternity brothers. They were staying with a redshirt freshman on the Alabama Football team and planned to watch the Tide beat the Georgia Bulldogs in Bryant-Denny Stadium that Saturday.

No recording devices are allowed in Circuit Judge Allen May's courtroom during the trial, so the reporting below is without a transcript and may summarize witnesses or attorneys rather than quote them exactly.

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How the Case Was Presented

Testimony began on Tuesday, and prosecutors called a dozen witnesses on behalf of the state of Alabama. Lead prosecutor Thomas Marshall rested his case just before the jury took its Wednesday lunch break.

The defense, led by attorneys Mary Turner, Joel Sogol and John Salter, called three witnesses, including the shooter, Zach Profozich, who testified on his own behalf and argued that he acted in self-defense.

In opening arguments and witness testimony, prosecutors told the jury the deadly shooting was unprovoked, unjustified, and that Profozich was unbothered after pulling the trigger.

Lawyers from Profozich said it was an act of self-defense from a man fearing for his life after threats from and a physical confrontation with belligerent, confrontational teenagers who were illegally drunk.

The Night of the Shooting

The killing happened after a chance encounter between three friends who bumped into two strangers to them who were walking the other way on University Boulevard, the Thursday night before the football game.

Schuyler Bradley was with Tommy Wahlstrom and Mitch Cross, two pledges at the Indiana Chapter of Acacia Fraternity, where the 19-year-old Bradley was already a member. Profozich was with his friend, Griffin Ridgeway, after they had spent about eight hours drinking at the Bear Trap bar, where Profozich worked as a bouncer.

Bradley and the Indiana crew were walking to Waffle House on the Strip from Innisfree, a bar about half a mile west on University Boulevard. Profozich and Ridgeway had left the Bear Trap and were walking to Roxy's, a now-closed bar in the downtown Temerson Square district. Their walk was longer — just under a full mile from one bar to the other.

All parties had been drinking for hours, and when the groups passed on the sidewalk, there was apparently some kind of physical contact between them — a "shoulder check" that happened in front of a house at 1705 University Boulevard.

The Confrontation

Words were then exchanged between them. Wahlstrom and Cross told the jury that Bradley spoke up in their defense and said something like "don't touch my friends." Ridgeway and Profozich both said the Indiana crew mocked them, calling them "simps," "pussies," and "faggots."

Whatever was said, a pair of home security cameras captured footage of the two groups beginning to separate, then stopping about 40 to 60 feet apart and facing each other. Ridgeway was shown flipping the middle finger at Bradley and his friends, then Ridgeway and Profozich walked toward the group, closing the gap between them in a few seconds.

The physical altercation and shooting that followed are not on camera — in a stroke of bad luck, the view of the action is blocked by a brick column on the home’s porch, which obscures the far-right side of one shot and the far-left side of the other.

Everything that happened next occurred in that blind spot, consisting of just a few feet of sidewalk along University Boulevard.

The footage does not show who made first contact, but it’s evident that a scuffle has broken out when Mitch Cross comes flying out of the blind spot and lands on his back. Wahlstrom testified that Griffin Ridgeway shoved Cross after the two groups came together. Ridgeway admitted to the shove, but said Cross had grabbed him first.

The cameras caught Ridgeway walking out of the blind spot and away from the scuffle, west on University Boulevard toward downtown. He testified that he thought the "fight" was over and just wanted to move on.

Profozich testified that Bradley then said, "I should beat the fucking shit out of you," and then "I should fucking kill you" after Cross got shoved, but none of the other three people who were involved corroborated hearing any threat.

Competing Accounts of the Shooting

The footage then shows Schuyler Bradley snap backward out of the blind spot as if pushed, then walk back into the same space where the camera cannot see. Prosecutors say Profozich shoved him.

Profozich testified differently — he said Bradley shoved him, and the footage actually shows the former wrestler and football player essentially bouncing off the 22-year-old bouncer. Both men were over six feet tall.

Profozich said he then drew his revolver — a Ruger GP100 with black grips and a shiny silver frame — and yelled: "Stop!"

All parties agree that Schuyler Bradley said something like "that’s just a BB gun," or "don’t point that BB gun at me," and then a gunshot rang out.

Profozich told the jury that as Bradley made the comment about his revolver, the 19-year-old crouched a bit and put his hand behind his back.

"I reacted to it, and I shot him," Profozich said. "I thought he was reaching for a gun — and I couldn't believe what had just happened. I was completely in shock."

The cameras did not capture the shooting, but one angle showed Schuyler Bradley fall straight backward out of the blind spot and return to view. He doesn't move to catch himself, and his head bounces off the sidewalk with some force.

In the surveillance footage, Profozich then emerges from the blind spot, moving west toward Ridgeway and downtown — they walk away from the scene before Ridgeway breaks into a run, and Profozich follows suit.

The Aftermath

The different sides of the case present opposing views on what Profozich felt and did before the fatal shooting and in its aftermath.

Prosecutors said Profozich and Ridgeway drank at the Bear Trap for over three hours before going to a nearby apartment that Profozich shared with his girlfriend, so Ridgeway could clean himself after throwing up at the bar. They say that’s when he armed himself with the revolver, then walked back to the Bear Trap for about four more hours of drinking before the shooting.

Profozich testified he wasn't trying to cause trouble; he decided to get the gun because he and Ridgeway had already made their plans to walk downtown to Roxy's bar, and he was worried about protecting himself hours later on the mile-long walk after midnight.

Prosecutors said Profozich walked away from the scene of the shooting without calling 911 or providing aid, then jumped a fence, ditched the revolver, and called a friend to pick him up before riding with his girlfriend back to their apartment and going to sleep.

Profozich testified that he was in shock, accidentally dropped the gun while climbing the fence and said he got advice from an attorney friend to go home, sleep it off and talk to the police in the morning instead of turning himself in that night. He said he "passed out" only after crying, freaking out, and praying that Bradley would recover from the shooting.

It was Griffin Ridgeway, though, who went to the police hours after the shooting and told them what he’d seen and where he thought the gun had been tossed. Investigators recovered the revolver and ultimately found Profozich in bed, hours after an unsuccessful manhunt around the shooting scene, and arrested him for attempted murder.

After he was jailed and then released on bond, Schuyler Bradley succumbed to his wounds and died about 25 hours after the shooting. Profozich was arrested again, this time for murder.

He posted a new $150,000 bond the same day and was soon after granted permission by a district judge to move back to his parents' home in California until trial.

Expert Witnesses

The jury saw body camera footage from multiple Tuscaloosa and University of Alabama Police officers who responded to the scene. They also heard from state forensics experts who testified that the gunshot wound killed Bradley, and that the fatal bullet was fired from the gun Profozich had been carrying.

Alabama’s Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Edward Reedy, also cast doubt on Profozich’s narrative of the shooting. He said from the autopsy and the footage of Bradley falling after the shot was fired, it’s more likely that the 19-year-old was moving backward and retreating from the gun than advancing on Profozich or crouching as if to draw a gun of his own.

Reedy said the .357 bullet tore through Bradley’s liver, large bowel, and small bowel before punching through his third lumbar vertebra and coming to a stop in the tissue of his back. He said the damage to nerve bundles in the spinal canal would have effectively paralyzed Bradley as he fell. Unlike in some action movies, the force of the bullet would not have “blown” him backward, Reedy testified. Instead, he said the way Bradley fell seems to show that he was already moving away from Profozich and that momentum carried him backward after he was shot.

Prosecutors also showed the only things Bradley had on him that night were a wallet, a cell phone and a very large bag of Flamin’ Hot Funyuns - no weapon of any kind.

What Comes Next

The defense called two additional witnesses after Profozich, including a friend who said it seemed clear that he was in post-traumatic shock after the shooting. That witness testified that he had combat medic and ER experience, and said Profozich seemed like "the lights were on, but no one was home" in the hours after it happened.

Turner rested the defense’s case on Wednesday afternoon.

The jury will return to the courtroom of Circuit Judge Allen May on Thursday to hear closing arguments from attorneys on both sides of the case, then begin deliberations soon after.

Profozich is charged with murder, and a verdict could be returned as soon as Thursday afternoon. If convicted, his sentencing would be held at a later hearing.

For more coverage of the murder trial and other crime and courts news from around West Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.