Questions abound after bullet hole found in Moundville Times building

Moundville Police are searching for the person responsible after someone fired a bullet into the building of the town’s local newspaper.

Moundville Times Editor Travis Vaughn, like many in the news business, spends a lot of time at the office, many of them long after regular business hours.

This is the first time he’s experienced anything quite so worrisome.

“I can’t think of anything like this happening ever in the 10 years I have worked here,” Vaughn said. “If you talk to people in Moundville, they will tell you that gunshots, especially downtown, are just not something that happens.”

No one was in the building at the time of the shooting, and the area involved isn’t one staff members regularly traverse. It’s a foyer area often used by guests.

“We believe it happened somewhere around late in the evening or in the middle of the night sometime,” said Moundville Police Department Investigator Cole Ward. “That is ultimately the best possible outcome, obviously, with someone shooting into a building is there only being property damage.”

No suspects have been developed at this time, but investigators and Vaughn can’t help but wonder if the shooting was in response to the journalism done by the paper.

“You worry about things like that,” Vaughn said. “You try to do a good job and you try to be fair, but you have to cover the news, so you wonder could it be somebody retaliatory or a message of ‘hey, back off’ or whatever? I hope it is just a random act of stupidity.”

If you have any information on this case, you are asked to contact MPD at 205-371-2218 or your local law enforcement agency.