Sergeant Nick Risner

October 2, 2021

Sergeant Nick Risner succumbed to gunshot wounds sustained the previous day when he was critically wounded during a shootout with an auto theft suspect in Muscle Shoals.

The suspect had shot the passenger of a vehicle he was riding in and pushed them out of the vehicle in the 800 block of Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals. The man then stole another vehicle and drove into the city of Sheffield. The vehicle was spotted by members of the Sheffield Police Department and pursued back into Muscle Shoals. Sergeant Risner used his patrol car to block the suspect’s vehicle after it drove into a Walmart parking lot.

The man opened fire on officers, wounding Sergeant Risner and another officer from the Sheffield Police Department. The subject was also wounded in the exchange of gunfire and taken into custody.

Sergeant Risner was airlifted to Huntsville Hospital where he succumbed to his wounds the next day. The second officer was saved by