Arrest Made In Atmore Ambush Style Murder

September 30, 2019

An arrest has been made in the ambush-style of an Atmore man last Tuesday morning, not far from Escambia County Middle School.

Anthony Jerome English, age 23 of Atmore was taken into custody Monday in Monroeville, Alabama. He is charged with murder for the 2:30 a.m. shooting death of Roderick Watkins, Jr. September 24 on Jimbos Road in Atmore.

“When officers arrived on scene, they found a male subject identified as Roderick Watkins, Jr. laying beside his car. Officers also noticed several bullet shell casings laying next to the car,” Atmore Police Chief Chuck Brooks told NorthEscambia.com. “Preliminary investigation revealed Mr. Watkins was ambushed.”

He said Watkins was returning home from work when he was shot.

The car was located in the driveway of a home at the end of the road.  The back passenger window of the Nissan Altima was shattered with visible bullet holes.

Brook said English was believed to be a lone gunman. No motive for the shooting has been released.

For more photos, click here.

NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge. English is pictured in a 2018 mugshot.

Comments

9 Responses to “Arrest Made In Atmore Ambush Style Murder”

  1. ep on October 2nd, 2019 10:00 am

    ok then while you try and figure out how to give a great growing up with a father and a mother in the home we will just patiently wait as they gun each other down in the streets

  2. Another thot on October 1st, 2019 9:22 pm

    So, if we eliminate cell phones, TV, weights, and good eats in prisons… or even make executions more frequent, or painful, or bloody, or extended over time, or broadcast live… people are going to think about that just before killing someone in a moment of anger or rage?

    More interesting would be knowing the alleged gunman’s history, from childhood to arrest. No, not for bleeding heart sympathy purposes. But for early crime prevention purposes and to recognize, early, who is on that path.

    Something in this alleged criminal’s life of only 23 years went very, very, very wrong to lead to such a crime as murder. Reducing violent crime in society is going to take far more effort, knowledge, intervention, and problem solving.

    Prisons keep convicted criminals separated from society, even by way of death in cases of capital punishment. Imprisonment is very expensive for all taxpayers. Prisons are not a deterrent or form of societal intervention that somehow, by fear, prevent violent crime. On the simplistic surface, it looks like frill reduction would work. The reality is that many things went wrong during those 23 years prior.

    “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Benjamin Franklin

  3. ep on October 1st, 2019 10:08 am

    my opinion on how to dramatically decrease these type things. you see this stuff all the time, just in Mobile 3 shot over the weekend and all over the country so you have to figure the majority know they are going to get caught but they do it anyway so what does that tell you ??? it tells you this they don’t mind prison, that simple, eat, lift weights watch tv join a gang and so on its not a good enough deterrent, so take away the tv, take away the weights ,drastically cut down out of the cell time have them most of the day in their cell and no TV then word would start to get out that this is no place where you would want to be and they might think twice before pulling that trigger

  4. sam on October 1st, 2019 9:32 am

    guess who gets to house and feed this young lad? yep US! he gets a roof over his head. air condition, food, medical, etc. he will die of old age.

  5. Master Mechanic on September 30th, 2019 9:54 pm

    2018 MugShot ??? Must mean he has priors?? Why was he out walking around ???
    He’ll do his walking from now on in a 5′x9′.

  6. Tom on September 30th, 2019 9:23 pm

    Lethal injection or the chair!

  7. Well on September 30th, 2019 8:56 pm

    Book’em Dano.

  8. M moody on September 30th, 2019 7:43 pm

    Great job atmore pd

  9. TJ on September 30th, 2019 6:52 pm

    As far as I am concerned an ambush is a cowardly attack, and I hope this punk get his just dues. 23 years old, what a waste of his life.