Man arrested after gunfire hits Life Flight helicopter in Autauga County

Gunfire turned a rural medical landing in Autauga County into a crime scene, injuring a flight nurse and forcing deputies to rush in and secure a Life Flight helicopter as it came down. The aircraft was struck in the right-side window while approaching an open-pasture landing zone, an attack that put an emergency transport mission at risk and drew in federal investigators.

Sheriff Mark Harrell said Haynes Life Flight was dispatched at 4:20 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025, to a medical call in the area of County Road 51. Autauga County volunteer firefighters had already set up the landing zone in an open pasture when shots were fired at the helicopter. One round ricocheted inside the aircraft and injured a flight nurse, who was treated on scene. The original patient from the medical call was then taken to the hospital by ambulance.

Deputies quickly identified where the shots came from and arrested Peter Ellison, 48. He was booked into the Autauga County Metro Jail on a charge of shooting into an occupied vehicle, with bond set at $30,000 cash only. Authorities also recovered a firearm, and the FBI and Federal Aviation Administration were contacted and took over the investigation. Later court records said Ellison told authorities he believed he was firing at a drone, though that claim has not been resolved in court.

Harrell said the public was never in danger because of the fast response by deputies, pilots and volunteer firefighters. Even so, the shooting exposed a fragile point in rural emergency care: air-medical crews depend on landing zones that are secure before they touch down, and a single burst of gunfire can delay transport, injure crew members and force a broader response from local and federal agencies. Haynes Life Flight said the aircraft remained under inspection and repair after the shooting, underscoring how one violent act can ripple through the county’s trauma-care chain.