A 19-year-old has been charged in the deadly shooting of a Montgomery man who was killed while he was streaming a Facebook Live video.
Montgomery police on Sunday night announced the arrest of Bakari Ano Taylor. He is charged with capital murder in the Jan. 23, 2020 death of 34-year-old Roosevelt Rankins Jr.
Taylor was taken into custody Friday by the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force and remains held without bond. Montgomery police Capt. Saba Coleman said the circumstances surround the shooting are unknown, however Taylor was identified as a suspect and subsequently arrested.
On that January Thursday, Montgomery police and fire medics responded about 3 p.m. to the 2300 block of Stella Street on a report of a person shot. They found a crashed vehicle with Rankins inside. He was pronounced dead on the scene. A man who had been in the vehicle with Rankins was not injured.
Rankins, under the Facebook name Crum King, streamed a video which lasted roughly 45 minutes. Just under 25 minutes into the video, a shadow appears to the right of the victim. He looks to his right, flinches and then gunfire can be heard.
The phone appears to drop to the floorboard. It shows the victim trying to flee the scene before the vehicle crashes and the screen goes black. The livestream, however, continued and the victim could be heard moaning.
Somebody could be heard yelling call 911 and telling the victim “don’t go” and “wake up.” Ultimately, first responders get to the scene on Stella Street and the livestream eventually goes silent.
By the following day, the video had been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. AL.com spoke with Rankins’ father after the killing. Roosevelt Rankins Sr., who served in the U.S. Army and retired after 26 years as an Alabama Department of Corrections officer, said he got a call from his niece telling him his son had been shot. He rushed to the Stella Street scene but could not get close.
Rankins Sr. said he believes his son, who had five children, was set up, possibly for robbery. He said he’s had an outpouring of support following the killing, even from former inmates who were in prison when Rankins Sr. worked there.
“There are too many young black men killing young black men,’’ Rankins Sr. said at the time. “I can’t understand what’s going on with our people.”
“The violence has to stop,’’ he said, “and I’m going to step up and start speaking out about it. I’m hurt.”
Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.
*story by AL. com