Authorities in Alabama abruptly left a Montgomery home on Tuesday morning without stating if they captured the triple murder suspect that was reportedly hiding inside. Police surrounded the home for more than six hours, shot “a powerful dose” of tear gas into the attic, and searched the place in hopes of finding the man accused of fatally shooting three people and wounding three others near Auburn University. Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange said the police have planned another search. “They are going to do another, what they call toe by toe search, through the entire attic looking in HVAC ducts, looking in chimneys, looking in every crevice,” Strange told reporters.
Officials are searching for 22-year-old Desmonte Leonard, who is now wanted on three counts of capital murder. The shooting took place on Saturday night at an off-campus apartment complex, University Heights, in Auburn, about 50 miles east of Montgomery. The dead included Ladarious Phillips, Demario Pitts, and Edward Christian, all the age of 20. Current football player Eric Mack, 20, and Xavier Moss were treated and released from a medical facility. John Robertson, 20, is in critical condition at Birmingham Hospital for a gunshot wound to the head.
