Home of Alabama state senator riddled with bullets

On a tranquil Thursday morning along a quiet street in Mobile, residents awoke to a fusillade of gunfire.

The incident occurred last week around 5:00 AM when an unknown gunman fired 23 shots into the home of longtime Alabama state Senator Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile. There were no injuries reported and Figures was not home at the time.

Figures, 64, has served in the Alabama Senate since 1997 where she has been a vocal advocate for equality and diversity. In 2019, she made headlines for her staunch opposition to Alabama's ban on abortions, calling out her male colleagues in the Senate for their desire to "control women's bodies."

The senator has also been an unapologetic critic of racism and injustice. Against the backdrop of the national debate over the removal Confederate monuments, Figures recently introduced legislation proposing to separate the state holiday that simultaneously celebrates Martin Luther King Jr and Confederate general Robert E Lee.

Lt. Christopher Levy, a spokesman for the Mobile police department, declined to speculate on a motive but did concede that the shooting "did not appear to be random."

Residents in the area did not report witnessing the incident, however, one neighbor did share their experience with local news outlet WALA-TV.

'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,' said the neighbor.

'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.'

Figures has not yet commented publicly on the incident.