Dominic Coleman, 20, was a Black/African American man from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, whose night ended in a burst of gunfire outside the Winston Mart convenience store on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on April 26, 2020. Police were called to the scene late that Sunday night, finding him shot and mortally wounded amid the chaos of an altercation that had spilled out into the parking lot. Investigators described a confrontation involving multiple people and vehicles, with shots cracking through the air and at least several vehicles struck as the exchange unfolded.
As detectives pieced together witness statements and physical evidence, they concluded the violence centered on a single shooter who opened fire on two people. Coleman was hit during the exchange and was pronounced dead at the scene. The second intended target, authorities said, was not struck and fired back. In the back-and-forth, the alleged shooter was also hit once, then taken for medical treatment for injuries described as not life-threatening.
By the next day, Tuscaloosa police announced an arrest: Nathaniel Patton, 18. Investigators said Patton fired a pistol multiple times, and he was booked into the Tuscaloosa County Jail. He was charged with murder in connection with Coleman’s death and attempted murder tied to the second person involved. Reports at the time put Patton’s bond at a combined $210,000.
The killing drew added attention because it happened at the same convenience store where another fatal shooting had occurred just days earlier, though officials emphasized the cases were not related. In the days after Coleman’s death, coverage focused on the suddenness of the gunfight and the unanswered questions surrounding what sparked it—questions made sharper by the fact that the second person in the crossfire was not publicly identified in early reporting.
