Hoover PD needs help identifying 2 males in connection to fatal shooting of Iraq war veteran

HOOVER, AL (WBRC) - Hoover police have released surveillance photos of two people they would like to identify and question in connection to the fatal shooting of a Hoover man, Mike Gilotti.

Police say these photos were taken Jan. 5 around 3:36 a.m. of the men visiting a store after they left the Highway 69/Inverness area in Tuscaloosa County, where investigators are looking into several car break ins, and before they returned to the Hoover/Bessemer area.

"We know these individuals broke into multiple cars in Tuscaloosa County. We know that they left that area. We believe they drove straight to Hoover and continued that little crime spree for the night where they broke in of course, around 10 cars in the Lake Cyrus subdivision. And that's when they encountered Mike Gilotti who was minding his own business," Hoover Police Captain Gregg Rector said.

Police were called to the Lake Cyrus neighborhood in Hoover around 4:55 a.m. They found Mike Gilotti had been fatally shot in his front yard and say he may have encountered suspects in a string of car break-ins in the Lake Cyrus neighborhood.

Hoover police describe these two men in the pictures as:

• Unknown black male wearing a dark colored hoodie with “FLY” on the front. Smaller letters underneath the word fly are believed to say, “FIRST LOVE YOURSELF”. This individual is believed to be 19-years-old and attended Bessemer City High School. He is known to frequent the McCalla/Tannehill area, as well as Arlington Avenue and Roosevelt Park areas in Bessemer.
• Second unknown black male wearing a long-sleeved shirt with an unknown logo on the front and back. He was also wearing a baseball cap with an unknown logo on the front and side. This individual is a known associate of the suspect wearing the “FLY” shirt. He also frequents the Bessemer area.

Police say they believe two other people were in vehicles outside of the store at the time these images were taken.

Rector said if these individuals are not worried, they should be.

"If you're involved in this crime then your world, your room, your surroundings should feel like they are getting much smaller right now, 'cause we're getting much closer to them," he said.

Rector says many people have put in "a lot of hours" to find justice for Gilotti.

"This was a horrible senseless tragic act and [Gilotti's] family deserves some measure of closure and they deserve justice. Mike deserves justice and we're determined to get it for him," Rector said.

If you have any leads for investigators, please call Sergeant Keith Czeskleba at 205-739-6795 or the Hoover Police Department at 205-822-5300. Or you can leave an anonymous tip by calling 205-254-7777.

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