Though it is impossible to know what is in store for Birmingham in the last three months of 2024, Saturday’s mass shooting that killed four people in Five Points South put the city closer to breaking the city’s annual record for homicides set in 1933.
As of today, there have been 122 homicides in Birmingham in 2024.
In 1933, the city set a record for homicides with 148 violent deaths.
At the rate Birmingham has gone in 2024, a year that has seen three quadruple homicides in seven months, the city could easily have 27 or more homicides before Jan. 1, 2025.
That would break that 91-year-old record.
The spike in homicides this year also comes at a time of dwindling population for Birmingham.
With a population of a little under 197,000 people in 2024, Birmingham has a rate of 6.2 homicides per 10,000 people.
In 1933, when Birmingham had just under 269,000 people, the city had 5.7 homicides for every 10,000 people.
The city ended 2023 with 135 homicides, a 6.25% drop over 2022 which had 144 homicides.
Birmingham’s 2022 homicide total was the deadliest year in recent city history — 141 in 1991.
Birmingham ended 2021 with 132 homicides; 2020 with 122 homicides; 2019 with 106 homicides; and 2018 with 107 homicides.
Birmingham police say that for officers it is not about the numbers but stopping such acts of violence.
“Whether this city has suffered one homicide or 100-plus homicides, our focus on the number of arrests we make,’’ said Officer Truman Fitzgerald.
”We don’t get caught up in are we going to break this record or break that record, our goal each year is to prevent all homicides,’’ he said.
So far this year, Birmingham has had numerous homicides involving more than one victim.
”We’ve had multiple homicide investigations where three or more victims have been killed in one incident,’’ Fitzgerald said.
”The criminal element has shown us that they don’t care about children, women, and innocent bystanders,’’ he said.
“It’s time for us as a city to stop caring about their safe harbor.”
