Devin Moore

Devin Darnell Moore (born Devin Darnell Thompson on May 15, 1985) is an American convicted murderer who killed two law enforcement officers and a dispatcher at a police station in Fayette, Alabama on June 7th, 2003. Moore had been arrested for car theft and gained control of his arresting officer's service pistol. He was captured shortly afterward in Mississippi after fleeing in a stolen police cruiser.

The shooting sparked a controversy regarding violent video games, as Moore was quoted as saying "Life is a video game. Everybody's got to die sometime" during his arrest, with Moore's defense later arguing that Moore was not guilty by reason of serious mental defect.

Moore was convicted on October 9, 2005, and was sentenced to death by lethal injection. As of July 2013, he remained on death row and was appealing his sentence. Kenneth Moore ran a janitorial business, and met Thompson when she was fifteen years old, while babysitting his other children from a previous marriage. Moore has five older half-siblings, including Mookie Moore, a former National Football League player. Moore grew up in Covin, Alabama, briefly attending an alternative school in Walker County for a year. He moved to Jasper, Alabama in the tenth grade to live with his mother.

Moore graduated from high school in spring 2003 and had enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, being due for entry by the end of summer. Moore had prior contact with law enforcement for selling drugs and car theft,

Fayette police killings In the morning of June 7, 2003, at around 3:00 a.m., Moore was arrested on suspicion of driving a stolen Toyota Camry following a traffic check in Fayette County, Alabama and taken to Fayette's police station, at the time staffed by three members of the Fayette Police Department. At the station, Moore was charged with receiving stolen property, telling his mother in his jail phone call that he had bought the car from a "crackhead" in Jasper, after Moore offered him $500. During the booking process, Moore's fingerprints and a mug shot were taken. During this time, report came in that a dry cleaner, near to where Moore had received the car, had been burglarized, with clothes stolen. As a shoeprint was recovered at the scene, arresting officer Arnold Strickland also removed one of Moore's shoes to match the soles, unlocking Moore's handcuffs in the process.

At approximately 5:30 a.m., Moore attacked Strickland and managed to grab the officer's service weapon, a .40 caliber Glock pistol. After killing Strickland with two gunshots, Moore exited the booking office into the hallway, where he encountered officer James Crump, who had run to the scene after hearing the gunfire. Moore shot Crump three times and proceeded to go to the station's communications room. Outside the door, Moore killed unarmed dispatcher Leslie "Ace" Mealer, who was kneeling with his hands on the floor,

Moore initially exited through the front exit, but re-entered the station through the adjoining fire department, later stating he wanted to retrieve one of his shoes he had left behind. According to the Associated Press, after his recapture he said, "Life is a video game. Everybody's got to die sometime." Moore initially asked to be shot and that he was distracted by the "smell of death".

James Eddie Crump, aged 40, was a corporal for the Fayette Police Department since 2000. He graduated Tuscaloosa Law Enforcement Academy in 1994 and previously worked as an officer in his hometown of Hamilton, Alabama.

Leslie Franklin "Ace" Mealer, aged 38, was a dispatcher for the Fayette Police Department since 1988. He was also a dispatcher for the Sheriff's Department and 911 call centre of Fayette County, as well as a Reserve Deputy for the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department and a Reserve Officer for the Berry Police Department.

Remembrances for the shooting were held in 2004, 2013

Legal proceedings

Moore's trial took place over the course of four weeks in summer 2005, under Judge James Moore. He entered a not guilty plea. Moore's attorney Jim Standridge, contended that Moore had PTSD and that could not differentiate between reality and imagination at the time of the crimes. Standridge argued that, as a child, Moore had been emotionally and physically abused by his father. Standridge later stated that media misrepresented his arguments and that he did not attempt to prove that the Grand Theft Auto video game had led to the shootings. Instead, the defense focused on Moore's alleged post-traumatic stress disorder and a potential state of dissociation that could have resulted in Moore acting engaging in "repetitive behavior", which in Moore's case would have included playing Grand Theft Auto. Moore was convicted of three counts of capital murder. On October 9, 2005, he was sentenced to death by lethal injection. As of November 2018, Moore was incarcerated at Holman Correctional Facility. Alabama Supreme Court denied certiorari in 2014. In April 2015, Moore filed for post conviction relief, which was dismissed in June 2016. The 24th Alabama Circuit Court ordered a summary dismissal of the relief petition in July 2017.