It was supposed to be just another Tuesday night in Lanett, Alabama. But by 9:21 p.m. on May 12, 2026, the quiet stretch of North 10th Avenue had turned into a crime scene, and 51-year-old Tommy Boyd Jr. was lying in the middle of the roadway with gunshot wounds tearing through his body.
Somebody had called it in — reports of shots fired and a man down in the street — and that was all it took for the whole block to know something awful had just gone down.When officers and EMS units rolled up to the 600 block of North 10th Avenue, they found Boyd right there in the road, exactly where he’d fallen. Medics didn’t waste a single second.
They got down on the pavement and worked on him right there at the scene, doing everything they possibly could to pull him back from the edge. But the wounds were just too severe, and despite the best efforts of every first responder on that street, Tommy Boyd Jr. never made it. The Chambers County Coroner’s Office officially pronounced him dead right there on the spot.
Boyd’s body was later transferred to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, where a full autopsy is set to be performed. That’s the kind of detail that puts it all into perspective — a man who was walking or standing on his own street just hours earlier is now on an examination table, and his family is left behind trying to make sense of something that doesn’t make any sense at all. Fifty-one years old. Gone just like that, out in the open, on a Tuesday night.The neighborhood didn’t sleep much after that.
Residents looked out their windows and watched the heavy police presence hold down the block for hours. Officers didn’t just show up and leave — they stayed, combed the area, gathered evidence, and talked to anyone who might’ve seen or heard something. It was a long night for everybody on that street, and the kind of scene that sticks with people long after the crime tape comes down.As of right now, Lanett police haven’t named a single suspect. No motive has been released. No arrests have been made.
Detective Reagan and his colleagues are still piecing everything together, and the investigation is being described as active and ongoing. That means whoever pulled that trigger is still out there somewhere, and the people closest to Tommy Boyd Jr. are going to have to sit with that reality while they grieve.
The Lanett Police Department is urging anybody who saw anything that night — or who heard anything, or knows anything at all — to pick up the phone and make the call. You can reach Detective Reagan directly at 334-644-5295. If you’d rather stay anonymous, Central Alabama Crime Stoppers will take your tip at 334-215-STOP, which is 334-215-7867. Your call could be the one that finally brings some answers to a family that right now has nothing but questions and a whole lot of heartache.Tommy Boyd Jr. deserved better than to die in the middle of a street in the dark. His family deserves answers.
And this community deserves to know that whoever is responsible for his death is going to be held accountable. The investigation is still open. The case is still active. And somewhere out there, somebody knows exactly what happened on North 10th Avenue on May 12, 2026.
