Pubdate: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 Source: Mobile Register (AL) Copyright: 2006 Mobile Register Contact: http://www.al.com/mobileregister/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/269 Author: Nadia M. Taylor, Staff Reporter Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) POLICE DRUG OPERATION TURNS INTO SHOOTOUT Gunfire Erupts During Undercover Operation Outside Mobile Restaurant Police arrested one man late Tuesday and were searching for another in connection with an undercover drug buy outside a restaurant on Satchel Paige Drive. No one was injured, but police said the man taken into custody barricaded himself in the Howard Johnson Inn at 3132 Government Boulevard and briefly took two hotel guests hostage. Wesley Winbush, 21, of Mobile was taken into custody and will be handed over to state officials, authorities said. Officer Eric Gallichant, a Mobile police spokesman, described the events leading to the arrest. Officers with the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board and Mobile County Task Force members were involved in an undercover drug buy at McAlister's Deli around 9:45 p.m. when gunfire erupted between state police officers and suspects, he said. The suspects were attempting to sell cocaine when the shootout occurred, Gallichant said, and task force members fired "because the subjects tried to run them over." After the shootout, the suspects bailed out of the vehicle, and one fled to the Howard Johnson, Gallichant said. The guests were able to get away from the suspect before members of the Mobile Tactical Response Unit and hostage negotiators got him to surrender, Gallichant said. One man was still on the loose shortly after midnight, but no description of him was immediately available. Police converged on the motel after a silver Lincoln at Government Boulevard and Satchel Paige Drive was initially surrounded by police vehicles. The car had several bullet holes visible. Hotel customers waited outside the lobby about midnight, while more than three dozen emergency vehicles sat around the parking lot. Members of the tactical team suited up with helmets, firearms, shields and body armor, while uniformed officers took up positions behind their cars at the corners of the motel with weapons drawn. After Winbush was taken into custody, motel customers began making their way back to their rooms. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake