George Lavon Bush

George Lavon Bush was a 45-year-old Black man from Prichard, Alabama, who was remembered by his daughter as a funny person who loved his children. Known as a "go getter," he was in the process of starting his own business. He had two children and was nicknamed "2 Slim thug" by those who knew him.

In the early morning of January 7, 2023, Prichard police officers responded to a call about shots fired in the 400 block of Prichard Avenue. There, they discovered George Bush inside his car, dead in the driver's seat from multiple gunshot wounds. The shooting was the city's first homicide of the year. Investigators found several bullet casings inside the vehicle and learned from a witness that a passenger in the back seat had shot Bush.

Police soon identified a suspect, 45-year-old Keenta Todd of Mobile, who was reportedly a longtime friend of the victim. Authorities located Todd at Mobile Infirmary, a local hospital where he was receiving medical attention for a broken ankle. He was arrested and, upon his release from the hospital, booked into the Mobile County Metro Jail on a murder charge. A judge later set his bond at $250,000.

The case against Todd was complicated by issues with the police investigation. While Todd was in the hospital, the lead detective, Jason Hadaway, interviewed him. During the recorded interview, Todd asked for a lawyer several times, but the detective continued to question him. Hadaway later testified under oath that Todd had never requested an attorney, a false statement that led to the detective's conviction on a misdemeanor perjury charge. A judge subsequently ruled that prosecutors could only use the portion of Todd's statement recorded before he first asked for legal counsel. The defense also raised concerns about a cell phone seized by police that was later lost.

At trial, Keenta Todd’s attorney argued that he had acted in self-defense. The defense claimed that Todd and Bush had been drinking and driving together when an argument broke out. According to the defense, Bush refused to let Todd out of the car, said "I've got something for you," and reached for a gun. Todd's attorney stated that he shot Bush to protect himself and then jumped from the moving car, which explained his broken ankle. In April 2025, a jury found Keenta Todd not guilty of murder, and he was acquitted.