Mobile County deputies charged Tucker Woods with murder in the birthday-night shooting of his longtime friend Gabriel Rogers.

Witnesses told investigators Rogers was holding a pocketknife when he approached Woods, and that detail is where a defense will start. Under Alabama law, the questions will be who was the aggressor, whether the rifle was raised first, and whether eight shots was a response to a threat or something else. Running into the woods and dumping the rifle in a culvert, as the sheriff's office describes it, will be the prosecution's answer.

The Mobile County Sheriff's Office has charged Tucker Woods with murder in the shooting death of Gabriel Rogers, NBC 15 reported Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. The sheriff's office said it received a 911 call at about 8:16 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17, reporting that a man had been shot at a residence in the 8700 block of Magnolia Trace Drive, near Boe Road Extension. Deputies found Rogers inside the home with gunshot wounds to his chest and head. Emergency medical personnel responded, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

According to investigators, Rogers and Woods were longtime friends who had spent the day together celebrating Rogers' birthday, NBC 15 reported. Later that evening, several people gathered at Rogers' home. Witnesses told investigators an argument began when Woods said he wanted to fire his rifle on the property, and that Woods became verbally confrontational. According to the witness statements, the confrontation escalated when Woods picked up an AR-15-style rifle, chambered a round and pointed it toward Rogers. Rogers, who was reportedly holding a pocketknife, approached Woods, and Woods then allegedly fired multiple rounds, striking him, the sheriff's office said.

Investigators recovered eight spent cartridge casings inside the residence, NBC 15 reported. The sheriff's office said Woods fled into a nearby wooded area after the shooting, and that deputies took him into custody when he came out of the woods and surrendered without further incident. Investigators later recovered the rifle believed to have been used from a drainage culvert near the home, according to the sheriff's office. Woods was booked into Mobile Metro Jail. His age, a bond amount and his next court date were not included in the sheriff's office account, and no attorney for him had been reported.

The sequence the sheriff's office describes, with a pointed rifle on one side and a pocketknife on the other, comes from witness statements gathered on the night of the shooting. Those statements will be tested in court. The investigation remains ongoing, the sheriff's office said. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.