"There were sparks coming off the ground, and then I felt a sting and I knew I'd been hit," said Rachel Studdard, who was sitting on the bar's patio with a group of friends, enjoying 50-cent draft beer, when the shooting started.
A bullet hit Studdard's toe, and debris hit her in the side and in the leg. She was using crutches to walk Tuesday and still had dried blood on her leg.
Police Chief Steve Anderson would not identify the man until charges were filed, and he cautioned that police were still uncertain about the motive.
Police said they thought the rampage was connected to an earlier shooting at a home in Northport, where yellow police tape surrounded the single-level, brown ranch-style house. The front window was broken out, and three police cars were parked outside. A motorcycle was parked in the garage.
One person was injured in that shooting.
"We feel certain that we will be able to connect the dots with this individual," Anderson said.
The gunman turned himself in at a business about 45 miles north of the shooting in Tuscaloosa. He walked into the store and told an employee he was the suspect, Anderson said. The workers called police, and the man was taken into custody.
Most of the injured were hit by bullet fragments or debris, said Brad Fisher, a spokesman at DCH Regional Medical Center.
Two people were in intensive care, one in critical condition and the other in serious condition, Fisher said. Three people were in fair condition, and the others were treated and released.
At least three of the injured were university students.
