Victim: Randel Corum
Year: 2022
Location: Little Rock
On May 17, 2022, gunfire erupted outside a downtown Little Rock gas station during what began as a chaotic confrontation between multiple vehicles. The shooting left Randel Corum, a 72-year-old bystander with schizophrenia, dead.
Security video and police affidavits show several men and women from three vehicles gathered at the Shell Road Runner convenience store on Broadway, where they were engaged in a water-gun fight at the gas pumps. Alford arrived in a white Chevrolet Impala and parked nearby. As the water-gun group began leaving, a passenger in the back seat of Alford’s car exited the vehicle and opened fire toward a departing silver Lexus.
Moments later, someone inside the Lexus returned gunfire. As Alford walked out of the store, he joined the exchange, firing his own weapon toward the Lexus. Police said the direction of fire from Alford and his passenger aligned with where Corum had been standing near the pumps. One round struck a gas pump close to Alford’s vehicle.
Corum was hit during the exchange and later died. He had lived largely on the streets for decades and was a familiar presence in the area, according to court records.
After the shooting, the Lexus fled south on Broadway. Alford followed in his Impala. Police later located Alford and the vehicle at the South Oaks Apartments, where he was taken into custody.
Alford told investigators he had stopped for gas and claimed his passenger, whom he knew only as “CJ,” came under fire first. He said he returned fire after seeing CJ shot at and claimed CJ fled the scene. Witness statements and video evidence contradicted parts of his account.
Initially charged with second-degree murder, Alford later faced upgraded charges including first-degree murder, committing a terroristic act, and aggravated assault. His bond was set at $500,000, which he posted after nearly three weeks in jail.
While out on bond, Alford was stopped by police in July 2022 while driving the same Impala with expired paper tags. Officers observed an AR-15 rifle on the front seat. Prosecutors argued the firearm violated his bond conditions, and a judge revoked his release, ordering him jailed under a $1 million bond. He remained in custody afterward.
Alford’s criminal history predates the homicide. In February 2022, police stopped a vehicle he was riding in and recovered a stolen pistol under his seat, a rifle-style firearm near his leg, multiple types of ammunition, and approximately 62 grams of marijuana. He faced charges including theft by receiving and marijuana trafficking.
In March 2015, when Alford was 15, police arrested him and his sister, Tamyha Hill, then 18, on second-degree battery allegations after an encounter with an officer investigating the shooting of their mother. Prosecutors initially charged Alford as an adult, but authorities moved the case to juvenile court because state law did not allow a child that age to be prosecuted as an adult on a Class D felony. Hill later pleaded guilty in January 2016 to aggravated assault and second-degree battery in exchange for five years of probation.
Police reports said officers responded to the family’s home on Republic Land after Alford and Hill’s mother, Seqoura Mitchell, 49, was shot in the leg. Mitchell told police Hill had been feuding with Hill’s ex-boyfriend, and the conflict escalated into a fight at the house involving some of the ex-boyfriend’s female cousins.
During that fight, a girl fired a gun. Mitchell said she returned fire and was wounded. Mitchell told police she dropped her gun, and Alford picked it up and fired back.
Witnesses told police two people involved in the incident sat in a car at a neighboring house, and one of them carried a gun. Officers located Alford and Hill inside that car. Police said they refused commands to get out and struck an officer in the head when he tried to remove them. Officers eventually pulled both of them from the vehicle and arrested them.
In 2025, Alford accepted a negotiated guilty plea to manslaughter in Corum’s death. He received a 20-year prison sentence and is currently incarcerated in the Arkansas Department of Corrections.
