Video: 2 Huntsville Police officers shot on Governors House Drive while answering a shots fired call

Following a shooting call at a Huntsville apartment complex, two Alabama police officers were shot, and unfortunately, one of them has passed away.

The loss of this officer is a great tragedy for the Huntsville community, the State of Alabama, and our department, expressed HPD Chief Kirk Giles.

The officer’s family is going through a difficult time, and we offer our sincere condolences as they mourn their loved one, who has made the ultimate sacrifice.

While we are grieving with the fallen officer’s family, another officer is currently battling for his life.

The chief requested that everyone keeps our officers and the entire department in their thoughts and prayers.

Officer Garrett Crumby, who was tragically killed, has been identified by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall. Officer Albert Morin, who was wounded, has also been identified.

Marshall expressed the state’s sorrow for the loss of another law enforcement member, who bravely responded to an emergency domestic violence call and risked his life to help a female victim.

According to Marshall, Officers Crumby and Morin were ambushed by an armed suspect, Juan Robert Laws, 24, who has been charged with capital murder of a law enforcement officer and was booked into the Madison County Jail before 11 p.m.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is leading the investigation into the deadly shooting.

Laws is being detained without bail, as per recent Alabama court records indicating his admission of guilt to a misdemeanor offense from 2022 for carrying an unlicensed firearm.

As part of his sentencing, the firearm was supposed to be surrendered to the state. Additionally, in 2022, he faced accusations of two counts of second-degree assault against two individuals.

Despite his waiver of a preliminary hearing, those cases were instructed last month to be presented to a grand jury for potential indictment.

In 2020, Crumby became a member of the Huntsville Police Department after serving in the Tuscaloosa Police Department from 2013 until his departure for Huntsville.

Recently, he was commended along with other officers for providing assistance to an individual who needed transportation home from a grocery store on a rainy night.

Crumby made the decision to offer the man a ride, as he was going to have to walk on a busy road in unfavorable weather conditions.

Although Crumby was the first police officer in Alabama to die on duty this year, he was the third to be shot in the line of duty.

This recent incident serves as a reminder of the bravery exhibited by law enforcement officials who form the “thin blue line,” which separates life and death for the citizens they pledge to safeguard, as stated by Marshall. Despite the dangers they face, these officers responded to a domestic violence call with the knowledge that they were putting their lives on the line to defend their community.

We must never underestimate their service and sacrifice. The previous Huntsville police officer killed on duty was Billy Fred Clardy III on December 6, 2019, during a drug operation at a residence on Levert Street in northeast Huntsville, where he was one of several police officers present.

According to Deputy Chief Michael Johnson, a call reporting gunshots at an apartment complex in the 4600 block of Governors House Drive was received by Huntsville police around 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday.

The caller informed the authorities that she had been shot, and the police found her at the location when they arrived. She was transported to a nearby hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, Johnson stated.

Johnson previously stated that the officers were also shot by an assailant during the early stages of the call. Mayor Tommy Battle expressed his sorrow for the City of Huntsville and the police department, saying that it was a painful night for them.

He expressed his condolences and gratitude for the outpouring of support from the community and expressed the city’s solidarity with the police officers and their families during this difficult time.

On Tuesday evening, Madison County Coroner Dr. Tyler Berryhill will transport Crumby’s body to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences in Huntsville, where an autopsy will be performed on Wednesday morning.

A widely circulated video on social media, which has been shared nearly 30,000 times, seems to show paramedics administering life-saving treatment to one officer and providing medical assistance to the other injured officer outside an apartment building. In the footage, residents of the complex can be heard telling officers that a woman and children are still inside the apartment.

Officers are then seen running towards the apartment with their weapons drawn, according to the video. In the footage, officers are shown carrying one of the children wrapped in a blanket while a woman hands another child to an officer from a window. The video also depicts several residents fleeing from the building.

The police officials expressed gratitude to the Madison County Sheriff’s Office and Madison Police Department for their help in responding to calls in the City of Huntsville while HPD officers grieve this devastating loss in a news release.

The department has also requested that the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) lead the inquiry.