In the late afternoon of March 12, 2020, a burst of violence shattered the calm near the intersection of Cedar Pointe Road and Dauphin Island Parkway in Mobile, Alabama. Responding to a report of a person shot at approximately 5:20 p.m., Mobile Police officers arrived to find 42-year-old Jeffery Jason Himes suffering from a serious gunshot wound. Emergency services transported the White / Caucasian male to the University of South Alabama hospital, but his injuries proved to be fatal, and he
succumbed to them later that day.
Jeffery, a Mobile native and a 1996 graduate of Mary G. Montgomery High School, was known for his natural talent as a self-taught machinist. He was a father who, by all accounts, loved his children more than anything. His life, however, was cut short in a violent encounter that would soon become a homicide investigation.
As detectives began to piece together the events of that tragic afternoon, their investigation quickly led them to a suspect. Investigators identified and detained 47-year-old John David Buck Jr. in connection with the shooting. Though the initial reports did not immediately detail an arrest, the case progressed steadily.
By July 1, 2020, the evidence gathered by the police was presented to a grand jury. After reviewing the case, the grand jury returned an indictment against John David Buck for the murder of Jeffery Himes. Following the indictment, U.S. Marshals located and arrested Buck, bringing a significant development to a case that had left a family grieving and a community seeking answers.
