Mobile Man Pleads Guilty to Illegally Possessing Machinegun That He Fired During New Year's Eve Shooting

MOBILE, AL – A Mobile man pleaded guilty to illegally possessing a machinegun that he fired during a shooting in downtown Mobile on December 31, 2022.

According to court documents, Thomas Earl Thomas, Jr., 22, possessed and fired a .40 caliber Glock pistol equipped with an extended magazine and an illegal machinegun-conversion device, commonly referred to as a “Glock switch,” during New Year’s Eve celebrations in downtown Mobile on December 31, 2022. The shooting, which occurred in a crowded section of Dauphin Street near South Jackson Street, killed one person and injured nine others. In connection with his guilty plea, Thomas admitted that he lied to homicide detectives about possessing and firing the gun, as captured on surveillance video. Thomas further admitted, among other things, that he had bought the gun at a gun show in Mobile weeks before the shooting and knew it had been illegally modified with a “switch.”

Firearms experts examined and test fired Thomas’s illegally modified gun, which operated as a fully automatic weapon and expelled multiple rounds of ammunition with a single pull of the trigger. Thomas admitted that he had never registered his machinegun in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, as required by federal law.

Thomas is scheduled to be sentenced on July 24, 2023, and faces up to ten years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

U.S. Attorney Sean P. Costello of the Southern District of Alabama made the announcement.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Mobile Police Department are investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Roller is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.