On September 23, 2016, Darryl Dewayne Grace, a 26-year-old man from Fairfield, Alabama, was caught in a burst of violence that unfolded in broad daylight at a Chevron station on Lloyd Noland Parkway. In the early afternoon—around 1:30 p.m.—gunfire erupted near the pumps as two men began shooting at one another, turning an ordinary stop for gas into a chaotic, dangerous scene.
Police said the confrontation involved only the two men.
One of them, badly wounded, tried to get away by car but crashed nearby after striking a light pole and died from his injuries at the scene. The other was rushed to a hospital in critical condition but later succumbed as well. The incident left the community with two deaths in a matter of minutes and investigators working to understand what sparked the exchange of gunfire in the first place.
Authorities publicly indicated they were not searching for additional suspects, describing the shooting as a mutual gunfight in which the men were believed to have shot each other. With that framing, there was no public hunt for a third party, and reporting at the time did not describe any arrests tied to Grace’s death. The case, as described by police in contemporaneous coverage, centered on reconstructing why the men opened fire rather than identifying an unknown shooter who fled.
