On a Saturday afternoon in Birmingham, Alabama, the life of Thomas George 'Tommy' Bostany, a 29-year-old white male, was brought to a tragic and violent end. On September 30, 2023, police were called to the Mountainside Villas Apartments on Penthouse Drive around 4:12 p.m. following a report of a person down. Arriving at the scene, officers discovered Bostany unresponsive inside his vehicle.
He had been shot multiple times, and Birmingham Fire and Rescue personnel pronounced him deceased at the location.
The preliminary investigation quickly revealed that someone had fired shots into Bostany's vehicle. An adult male, identified as 26-year-old Samuel Edward Wiggins IV of Birmingham, was taken into custody at the scene. Homicide detectives interviewed Wiggins and subsequently booked him into the Birmingham City Jail. Though a motive for the shooting was not immediately clear, the investigation proceeded.
Following a review of the evidence presented by the Birmingham Police Department, the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office issued a warrant for Wiggins's arrest on a charge of capital murder for shooting into an occupied vehicle. He was transferred to the Jefferson County Jail and held without bond. In a later development, Samuel Edward Wiggins IV pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of murder in connection with Thomas Bostany's death.
