re: Tuscaloosa Shooting, 1831 Bar, Up to 16 severe injuries

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Biker thugs don't strike me as the type to shoot up a bar and turn themselves in the next day. Just me though.

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JASPER, Alabama --- A man suspected of shooting 17 people in a Tuscaloosa bar early this morning confessed to a FedEx worker in the Jasper store this morning saying, "Yeah, that's me. I'm the one that shot 17 people in Tuscaloosa," the worker said today.

Employee Ken Barfield said he noticed a man pacing in the parking lot of the store, located on Pediatric Drive near Wal-Mart, and thought it suspicious but didn't think much of it. The man was muscular, had a shaved head and was wearing blue jeans and black t-shirt.

Barfield said they made eye contact, and the man immediately told him who he was. "I guess that's how it is when everybody's looking for you, and your picture is everywhere," Barfield said. "He just assumed I knew who he was."

Once he told Barfield who he was, Barfield told him, "Well, I guess I am going to have to call the police. "

"He was calmly leaning against the counter," Barfield said, "but he was sweating profusely."

He said it took police about 8 to 10 minutes to get there, or at least that's what it felt like it.

"I was trying to keep him calm. I offered him something to drink," Barfield said. "He was sweating profusely."

He said he kept 911 operators on the line, but put the phone on the counter so as not to further agitate the man. "I wanted to leave the line open."

The man told Barfield, "I was taking drugs, and things got out of hand at the bar," Barfield said. "He was going from one train of thought to another."

When police surrounded the building, "I advised him it would be in his best interest not to be reaching in his pocket or anything."

Barfield said the man put his hands into the air and was taken into custody.

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