“He came running into the house… I didn’t even notice he was shot!” – Samuel Hankins

by Steve Wiggins
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Gale Street home where shooting incident happened.

Gale Street home where shooting incident happened.

TUSCUMBIA – In what will surely go down as one of the most bizarre series of altercations in recent memory, another Tuscumbia man in in critical condition in Huntsville Hospital… suffering from 3 gunshot wounds. Late Monday night, Lonell Hankins, 31, was shot, allegedly by the brother of accused murderer, Jeremy LeShaun Williams. Williams is under arrest in Florence for the alleged brutal Thanksgiving murder of Brioni “Bree” Jamaal Rutland. Monday night’s altercation took place just outside the door of Bree Rutland’s step father’s house on Gale Street. The accused man, Gregory Williams, is currently in lockdown at Tuscumbia City Jail, having been arrested shortly after the shooting.

Lionell "Rock" Hankins - photo source unknown

Lionell “Rock” Hankins – photo source unknown

The Quad-Cities Daily went to the Hankins residence where Bree’s father, Samuel Hankins and some of his family members offered their story as to what happened.

“We were right here inside, we had been talking about Bree’s funeral,” said Samuel, “it was late and I was ready to go to bed. Lionel’s mother – my sister, and some other family were trying to make some sense of all this. Lonell was outside on the front porch.”

The modest house is on a quiet, dead-end street in Tuscumbia. The family members had no reason to suspect that there was going to be any further trouble after their recent tragedy.

“We heard some noise outside,” one of the family members remarked. Samuel, who is profoundly deaf didn’t hear anything. He had no idea there was anything wrong until Lonell burst the door open and ran inside from the porch.

Samuel Hankins - Bree Rutland's step father

Samuel Hankins – Bree Rutland’s step father

“He ran into the bathroom, over there (around the corner),” Samuel pointed, “Well I didn’t know what was going on, so I got up out of my seat and started to go to the bathroom to see what was the matter.” He continued, “But just then Greg (Williams) came running in after him… I didn’t know that he had a gun! And he beat me to the bathroom and jumped on Lionell. Well, I pulled him off!” (Samuel is not a young man, however he is tall and appears to be in good physical shape.) The gunshots supposedly took place outside in the street.

According to Hankin’s sister, Williams allegedly pointed the gun at her, but did not pull the trigger. Williams then ran out the front door.

That’s when they all realized that Hankins had been seriously wounded by the gunshots. They called the Tuscumbia Police.

Samuel Hankins points to area of the street where the shooting took place

Samuel Hankins points to area of the street where the shooting took place

After they recounted their story of last night’s events, Hankins’ mother noted that the families of all the players in this tragedy know each other. “They went to school together!”, she said. “They played football together… and now this.”

Editor’s note: As this story develops, we will publish additional information.

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