Five people now stand charged in a broad daylight Montgomery shooting that left a 43-year-old wife and mother paralyzed after she was caught in crossfire.
Authorities on Monday announced the arrest of one suspect and announced four more arrests during a Tuesday press conference.
Michael Johnson, 20, and Javaris Anderson, 22, both of Prattville, are charged with first-degree assault and two counts of discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle.
Je’Kwon Foster, 20, Ji’Mecya Ford, 19, both also of Prattville, and Tyrone Davis, Jr., 18, of Millbrook, are charged with discharging a firearm into an unoccupied vehicle.
Johnson was taken into custody Sunday by the Pelham Police Department. He was booked into the Montgomery County Detention Facility and has since been released after posting $90.000 bond.
Anderson, Foster, Ford, and Davis were all taken into custody Tuesday with assistance from the U.S. Marshal’s Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force.
Anderson’s bond is set at $90,000. Bond for Foster, Ford and Davis is set at $15,000 each.
“This is one of those cases that was just done by old fashioned police work,’’ said Montgomery Acting Police Chief Hall.
“This is not a case where the individuals knew each other,’' Hall said. “We had some individuals committing a heinous act and an innocent individual get caught in the middle.’’
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The shooting happened about 1 p.m. Friday, April 12.
Dicks was driving in the 5500 block of Atlanta Highway when she stopped at a red light and shots rang out.
“All of the sudden, I heard multiple gunshots, seemed like thousands,’’ Dicks said in a Facebook post. “I ducked my head trying to look around to see if I could tell what was going on.”
“It was so weird because there were so many and out of nowhere and it caught me off guard,’’ she wrote.
“Then that’s when it happened, a bullet entered my driver’s window, pierced my shoulder, went through my side, hit a rib, my lug and then severed my spinal court,’’ Dicks wrote.
“As my body convulsed and everything was in slow motion, I knew I wasn’t going to make it.”
Amy Dicks, a wife and mother, was paralyzed from the chest down when she was caught in the middle of a shootout in broad daylight in Montgomery.(Contributed)
She wrote that she called her husband and her mother and told them she loved them.
Dicks underwent surgery to remove the bullet but remains paralyzed.
She has since been moved to Shepherd Center in Atlanta, which specializes in spinal cord and brain rehabilitation.
Hall said the suspects were shooting at each other when Dicks was wounded. A motive has not been established.
He said cameras in the area helped in the investigation.
Hall said because none of the suspects lived in Montgomery, it made it more difficult to track down leads. “They came to the city of Montgomery and committed this heinous act,’’ he said.
Jerime Reid, the chief operating officer for the City of Montgomery, said the city is dedicated to not only fighting crime but solving crimes.
“We have a 60 percent clearance rate,’’ Reid said. “When you commit a crime in Montgomery, we’re going to find you and we’re going to arrest you.”
Authorities said the investigation is ongoing and more charges could be filed.