Derrick Blount, a 40-year-old Black man from Montgomery, Alabama, was killed in the summer of 2019. His death stemmed from a dispute that turned violent on a Saturday night.
On the evening of August 3, 2019, Blount and another man who knew him were involved in a verbal fight on the 3400 block of Rosa L. Parks Avenue. The argument escalated, and Blount was shot.
Around 9:30 p.m., police and fire medics responded to a call about a person shot, but they were directed to a different location. First responders discovered Blount in the 4800 block of Mobile Highway, in the parking lot of a Dollar General. He had sustained a fatal gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Montgomery Police Department investigation quickly pieced together the sequence of events. Detectives determined that the shooting had occurred during the argument on Rosa L. Parks Avenue. They learned that after Blount was shot, the suspect drove him to the Mobile Highway location where authorities later found him.
Police identified the suspect as 22-year-old Markel Dreshun Thomas of Montgomery. He was taken into custody at the scene on Mobile Highway where Blount’s body was discovered. Thomas was subsequently charged with one count of murder in the shooting death of Derrick Blount. He was transported to the Montgomery County Detention Facility and held on a $150,000 bond. As of January 2020, the case against Thomas was proceeding through the legal system.
