Jonathan Sanders, 23, was killed in a shooting on May 8, 2026, on Highland Avenue in Mobile, Alabama. He had been called to the 800 block by his girlfriend, who said she was being harassed and followed by her ex-boyfriend, 28-year-old Joseph Smith IV. An argument escalated and an exchange of gunfire followed; investigators say Smith fired the first shots. Both men were struck, and Sanders was pronounced dead at the scene. Smith was wounded but survived.

The girlfriend’s young daughter was in the backseat of a car during the shooting and witnessed the violence. Smith was treated at a local hospital, released on May 13, and taken into custody. He was arrested and charged with Sanders’ murder and with two counts of discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle or building, booked into the Mobile County Metro Jail, and denied bond at a bond hearing. The case is now in the judicial process as the family awaits the outcome.

Did anyone in Mobile see or hear anything on Highland Avenue that afternoon that could help fill in gaps about how the confrontation began?