Daniel P Watson: Alabama man goes on midnight rampage killing 4 before turning himself in
ST CLAIR COUNTY, ALABAMA: Four people were reportedly gunned down overnight in Birmingham and St Clair County, after which a suspect turned himself in and alerted police. The sheriff's office confirmed that 28-year-old Daniel P Watson of Pell City has been charged with capital murder and murder with a weapon in connection with the St Clair County killings. Although the suspect is being held in Birmingham, he has not yet been charged with the two murders there.
According to Birmingham police spokesman Officer Truman Fitzgerald, officers received information from the Leeds Police Department at 6.am Tuesday, March 14, that Watson had confessed to killing two people in Birmingham. He gave general details about a house in South East Lake where two people had been shot. When police arrived on the scene, they found the bodies of an adult male and an adult female. Both victims, who were not identified, died from their gunshot wounds.
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At around 5.am on Tuesday, Watson reportedly approached a Leeds police officer and confessed to have killed for people by shooting them, two in Birmingham and two in St. Clair County, Fitzgerald said, adding that he believes the people in Birmingham were killed first, possibly between 11.pm and 1.am. Nobody is Birmingham heard the shots being fired, Fitzgerald said. "Gunshots are so common that even if a resident heard gunshots, it probably didn’t raise any alarm," he said, according to AL.com.
Who are the St Clair County victims?
Sheriff Billy Murray said the double murders in St Clair County took place on Ivy Drive in Ragland. Both the victims lived at the Ivy Drive address. The victims have been identified as Amber L Manning, 37, and Timothy R Davidson, 62.
At about 12.01 am, Murray said, St Clair County Deputies responded to a disturbance call at 1 Ivy Drive Ragland. The deputies found Manning dead in the driveway and Davidson inside the house, still alive. He was pronouned dead after flying by lifesaver to UAB hospital. “We’re still actively investigating to try to piece everything together,’' Murray said. “It’s a terrible situation.”
Davidson’s sister, Cathy Riggs, said the family is shocked and devastated after the incident. “I can’t imagine why anybody would walk in and shoot him in the back of the head,’’ Riggs told AL.com. “I think he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Describing her brother as good-natured, Rigg said, "It’s senseless. Tim was the kind of person who would give the shirt off his back.”
Manning leaves behind her three sons and her husband. She was described by her friends as an ‘’amazing” mother.
'The suspect knows everybody or knows of everybody'
It is reported that the suspect knew at least some of the victims. “From everything that I’ve been told, the suspect knows everybody or knows of everybody. You’re dealing with four lives lost in 24 hours and a potential fifth life lost in the end once this case goes to trial,” Fitzgerald said.
”This gentleman had a motive,’’ he said. “It goes to show how scary it is that this person is going to two different counties and taking lives.” He said the motive could have been domestic related. The two people killed in Birmingham victims are the city’s 16th and 17th homicide victims in the city this year.