One year ago today, shortly after midnight, Nathan Van Wilkins, a 44-year-old Northport, Ala., resident, went to Temerson Square in downtown Tuscaloosa and opened fire with a military style assault rifle, injuring 18 people, including three University of Alabama students, at the Copper Top bar. Wilkins was arrested later that day after turning himself in at a Jasper FedEx. No one was killed in the incident, but Wilkins was charged with 18 counts of attempted murder.

Tip Alexander, owner and manager of Copper Top, simply wants to keep those traumatic events in the past.

“We just want to put it behind us,” Alexander said. “We’re not going to celebrate. It’s not anything to be happy about, of course.”

Wilkins’ rampage came after he fired into a Northport, Ala., home earlier on the night of July 16, 2012. Wilkins faces 68 separate charges for the events of July 16 and 17.

In a letter to Tuscaloosa Sixth Circuit Court Judge Brad Almonds, Wilkins asked for the death penalty, saying, “Why send me to prison for life and support me with taxpayer money? That used to make me so mad when I wasn’t in jail and paying taxes and had to support people like that.”

Attempted murder is not a capital offense under Alabama law.

A trial date was set for May 6 earlier this year but did not take place.