SPANISH FORT – A Grove Hill man faces multiple felony charges after being accused of firing dozens of shots into the Bass Pro Shop in Spanish Fort on Saturday, Police Chief John Barber said.
Robert Smith, 38, was arrested after being subdued with a Taser. An officer was injured in the incident and required treatment at a local hospital, Barber said. No other injuries were reported.
The chief said Wednesday that investigators don’t know why Smith began shooting.
“That’s the big question right now. We’re working on motive,” Barber said. “We have a search warrant that we’ll be executing at some point this morning on his vehicle and so we’re still going through everything and we’re hoping that in the vehicle we might find additional information, evidence that leads us to coming up with our best guess of his motive at that time, but we’re not prepared at this point to declare one.”
He said police don’t know why Smith came to the area.
“He had no ties to the area that we know about, so that’s part of it,” Barber said. “How did he end up at Bass Pro? What is completely random or was there some kind of pre-planning to it? That’s what we’re trying to look at right now.”
On Saturday, police responded to a call that a possible active shooter was a Bass Pro Shop. Employees locked the service entrance doors and began moving customers and other employees to the opposite end of the building, Barber said.
The shooter began firing outside the building near marine area where boats are displayed, according to reports. Employees closed and locked the doors and moved customers to other areas of the building.
The shooter fired at least 30 shots into the building. Police recovered eight weapons at the scene, including three AR-style semi-automatic rifles, an AR-pistol, 9 mm short rifle, 12-gauge shotgun and two handguns. The shooter was later identified as Smith, Barber said.
Officers arrived to find a man attempting to go to the store’s main entrance. The shooter was wearing a bullet-proof vest, according to police reports. The officers used Tasers to stop Smith and take him into custody. During the arrest, one officer was injured.
Barber said that while Smith had been firing some of the guns that he had with him, the suspect was holding a cane when officers approached him.
“When they approached them, he was trying to gain access to what they thought was a weapon in the vehicle,” Barber said. “He couldn’t get hold of it for whatever reason, or maybe he thought he did. That’s what we’re trying to determine, because when he saw the officer, he was reaching into the vehicle trying to pull something out and then ended up with a cane in his hand.”
Smith and a woman had been driving back to Grove Hill from Florida when he stopped in Spanish Fort. The woman has not been charged, according to police.
Barber praised the efforts by police to prevent additional injuries.
“In today’s society where all law enforcement deals with an abundance of criticism for their actions, this highlights the professional work that most men and women who wear the badge and the uniform do every day,” Barber said. “This is a situation where it could have ended up completely different, but they showed a lot of restraint, discipline and good tactics.”
Smith is being held in the Baldwin County Corrections Center on $570,000 bond. He was charged with firing into an occupied building and second-degree assault, both felonies, and the misdemeanor offenses of resisting arrest and reckless endangerment, according to jail records.
The investigation into the shooting is continuing. Police are asking anyone who has video of the incident or who was a witness who has not already been interviewed by investigators to contact the department at 251-626-4914.
