On the evening of September 24, 2022, Jamarcus Lewis, a 27-year-old Black/African American man, was sitting in his car in the parking lot of the M&M Food Mart on U.S. 90 in Theodore, Alabama. A female passenger was in the vehicle with him, and another woman who was with them stood outside. At approximately 8:01 p.m., a man approached the car, pointed a gun, and opened fire. A witness told investigators the gunman said, “I’ll shoot your (expletive) on camera” before firing.
Lewis was struck and suffered a life-threatening gunshot wound. He was rushed to University of South Alabama’s University Hospital, where he later died. The woman inside the car with him was not injured.
Investigators soon learned the shooting was the culmination of an earlier conflict. A police detective testified that surveillance footage from an Exxon gas station on U.S. 90 and Bellingrath Road captured a physical altercation between Lewis and his eventual killer earlier that same day. While the video helped identify the suspect, prosecutors stated that a clear motive for the initial fight was unknown. At the scene of the shooting, police recovered four 5.56 shell casings. Surveillance footage from the M&M Food Mart also captured the shooting, and though it was described as distant and fuzzy, investigators could see what they believed was a muzzle flash.
The Mobile Police Department identified 19-year-old Anthony Malek Alston as the suspect and issued warrants for his arrest on charges of murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle. Investigators used still images from the surveillance footage to help identify him. The two women who were with Lewis made tentative identifications of Alston from a photo array, while a man who had known Alston since childhood positively identified him. After police asked for the public’s help in locating him, Alston turned himself in to authorities on October 4, 2022.
Two days later, at a court hearing, Alston pleaded not guilty to the charges, and a judge set his bond at $360,000. At a preliminary hearing in November 2022, a judge determined there was sufficient evidence for the case to be considered by a grand jury. The case proceeded through the legal system, and Alston’s murder trial began. During the trial, however, Alston abruptly changed his plea to guilty. In June 2026, a judge sentenced Anthony Alston to 25 years in prison for the murder of Jamarcus Lewis.
