23 shots fired into Democratic Alabama state senator’s home
To Alabama State Senator Vivian Davis Figures (D), the threat of right-wing violence by disgruntled supporters of the former guy who have escalated from partisan division to all-out warfare is anything but hypothetical.
At 5 AM earlier this week, Figures’ home in Mobile, Alabama was hit with 23 bullets at a time when luckily neither the state senator nor anyone else was at home.
No injuries were reported, but the home was riddled with bullets and broken windows.
Mobile police spokesman Lt. Christopher Levy said that the attack “does not appear to be a random act,” but hesitated in attributing it to political animosity from opponents of Figures’ Democratic ideology at this stage of the investigation.
Neighbors of the Alabama senator told reporters from WALA Fox10 News that they heard the shots but that by the time they got up to see what was going on in the early morning hour, the perpetrator had disappeared.
“At five o’clock that morning, I heard shots ring out and I laid there for a few seconds, but I didn’t know whether if I jumped up quick, that a bullet or something may come through the window. I looked out of all the windows to see if I could see anybody walking around or driving but I didn’t see nothing. Just heard the shots.” one of Figures’ neighbors said.
Another neighbor couldn’t fathom why anyone would do something like this to Senator Figures.
“She’s a good neighbor, good neighbor,” said the person living on Figures’ block. “It’s terrifying! Right in your own backyard or right on your same street.”
Mobile Police are still investigating the incident and have yet to release a statement on the shooting.
With political tensions and polarization at record levels, the descent into violence against people with opposing views marks a sad decline in our system of democracy.
This sort of domestic terrorism needs to be nipped in the bud. New anti-domestic terrorism laws need to enacted as soon as possible as the January 6th insurrection so amply proved.
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Original reporting by Shelby Meyers at WALA Fox10 News and by Howard Koplowitz at AL.com.
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