Man shot to death on Hollingers Island; 3rd homicide for Mobile police in 3 days

Published: Sunday, January 02, 2011, 2:39 PM ??? Updated: Sunday, January 02, 2011, 7:00 PM

A 28-year-old man was found shot to death on an industrial road in the south end of Hollinger’s Island late Saturday night, according to Mobile police.

Spokesman Officer Christopher Levy identified the victim as Sary Kinn. His death was the first homicide of the year for Mobile police and marked the third day in a row that they were called to handle a fatal shooting.

Levy said police got the call shortly after ?10:50 p.m. Saturday for a man down in the 7700 block of Deer River Road East. Responding officers found Kinn lying partly on the pavement with multiple gunshot wounds, he said.

Kinn was pronounced dead on the scene.

No arrests had been made as of Sunday evening.

The spot where Kinn was discovered is on a curve about 200 yards east of the fork where Deer River Road East breaks off Deer River Road and eventually leads to the Millard Refrigerated Services plant on the north bank of the Theodore Industrial Canal.

About 100 yards east of the crime scene, a spur railroad line for CSX Transportation crosses the road.

The scene was marked with orange paint tracing the victim’s body, and a significant bloodstain was still visible on the pavement Sunday evening.

A handful of residences, including a home-based bait shop, are along Deer River Road.

Levy said it was too early in the investigation to determine if Kinn was shot to death at the scene or was shot elsewhere and left where he was found.

As of Sunday, no one had been arrested in the cases that occurred Thursday and Friday.

Ramon Tinson, 23, was killed in a car early Friday morning at Government Street and Dauphin Island Parkway in what police believe was a drive-by shooting.

On Thursday, 24-year-old Michael Watkins was found fatally shot by a car in a field near Abrams Street, Levy said. A second man was shot during that incident, and a third was recovered uninjured after being locked in the trunk of the car.

Levy said anyone with information about any of these cases is asked to call police at 251-208-7211, CrimeStoppers at 251-208-7000 or text to 274637 and include the keyword CRIME 411.

(Updated at 7 p.m. to add new information, clarify headline.)

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Sand Island Lighthouse to get island back

Published: Sunday, December 19, 2010, 6:35 AM

Sand Island Lighthouse will be getting its island back.

Decades ago, the island that gave Mobile’s signature lighthouse its name disappeared below the waves, with erosion blamed in part on the dredging of the Mobile Ship Channel.

Now, thanks to $6 million in federal funds aimed at mitigating BP’s Deepwater Horizon spill, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has received approval to heap millions of cubic yards of sand around the lighthouse, beginning in March.

The lighthouse has essentially been an island unto itself — a tall, narrow column of brick standing atop a heap of rocks surrounded by open water — for as long as most people can remember. But it wasn’t always so.

In the 1800s, Sand Island was more than 400 acres, according to historical records. Early lighthouse keepers had a two-story house and livestock that grazed on the island.

In the intervening years, Sand Island and Dauphin Island both experienced heavy erosion that Scott Douglass, a University of South Alabama coastal engineer, links to the creation of the Mobile Ship Channel. The channel, Douglas said, disrupts the natural movement of sand along the Alabama coastline, starving both Sand and Dauphin islands.

"The funds we got were to use (sand dredged) from existing federal navigation channels located on the Gulf Coast to mitigate the Deepwater Horizon spill," said Susan Rees, an environmental engineer with the Mobile corps district. "We designed a project that begins around the lighthouse and goes as far west as the money will carry us."

The remnants of Sand Island are still present in the form of a large shallow area that stretches west from the lighthouse toward the Dauphin Island pier. The corps intends to use that shoal as the backbone of the new island. A long, narrow ridge of sand will be built up to a height of about 6 feet above the high tide line.

"This is a step in the right direction. They are putting sand where Mother Nature would have put it if the ship channel weren’t there," said Douglass. "This project will help restore the natural movement of sand."

Rees said officials hope the island will ultimately be more than a mile long.

Hal Pierce, with the Alabama Lighthouse Association, said the project was a major step toward saving the lighthouse for the long term.

"We are delighted. It will give us the first safe docking at the lighthouse that we've had in years, so people will finally be able to visit," said Pierce, whose group has long advocated restoring the island. "If we're ever going to properly fix the lighthouse this will be a big help."

Dauphin Island mayor Jeff Collier said the project had multiple benefits.

"Not only is it going to help the lighthouse directly by stabilizing the foundation, but it is also going to benefit Dauphin Island, both as a wave break and by putting sand into the system," said Collier. "It is a common sense type thing to do. People will be able to slide their boats up on the island and visit the lighthouse. I just can’t see a downside."

Corps officials said a public notice for the project should be posted in a matter of days. A public comment period will follow.

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