A man was shot to death in a southwest Birmingham neighborhood Tuesday night, less than four hours after another man was killed a short distance away.
Police said they are not ruling out the possibility that the two killings are linked.
West Precinct officers responded to a Shot Spotter alert in the 300 block of 27th Street S.W. shortly before 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.
They arrived to find the victim unresponsive in the middle of the road. Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service pronounced him dead on the scene.
Officer Truman Fitzgerald said investigators believe some sort of argument took place between the victim and the suspect which led to the fatal shooting.
The gunfire detection system registered two shots fired.
“This was a personal conflict,’’ Fitzgerald said.
A large crowd of friends and family gathered at the scene, visibly upset and clearly agitated with police.
“We have a large crowd that’s talking, a large crowd that’s loud,’’ Fitzgerald said as family yelled things while he was briefing the news media. “We need that same energy sent to our detectives that way we can do something with that information and get these individuals off the street.”
West Precinct officers responded to a Shot Spotter alert in the 300 block of 27th Street S.W. shortly before 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and arrived to find a man dead.(Carol Robinson)
The deadly shooting happened less than a mile away from a convenience where another man was killed about 5 p.m., possibly during a dispute over a social media post.
That homicide happened at Big Boy Convenience Store at 2714 Pearson Ave. S.W.
The victim in the earlier case died en route to UAB Hospital.
“We believe that two adult males who were involved in an armed confrontation with one another,” Fitzgerald said of the earlier killing. “One party had a gun, the second party had a gun, and one of those males fired shots.”
Fitzgerald said it’s possible the two our linked.
“Our detectives are looking into seeing if it was connected,’’ he said. “We are extremely close to that original homicide scene.”
“There is intel to suggest it may be, however it’s so early that our detectives haven’t had time to look into it,” he said.
It’s been a deadly week in Birmingham with seven people killed in less than 72 hours, including four victims from a weekend mass shooting.
“It’s been a rough week,’’ Fitzgerald said. “One thing we’ve been trying to let the public know is that many of our shootings recently have been targeted and personal and that’s been the case for many of our homicides in 2024.”
Anyone with information in either homicide is asked to call Birmingham detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
