A 21-year-old has been charged in a deadly Birmingham home invasion that left one person dead and three others wounded included the suspect.
Tyler Reed Sanders, 21, is charged with murder in the Sept. 2 slaying of 49-year-old Lafontae Dejarris Lenard. He is also charged with two counts of attempted murder.
Sanders remains in the hospital.
Just before 11 p.m. that Monday, South Precinct officers were dispatched to a report of a burglary in progress at University Crossings apartments in the 200 block of Third Avenue S.W.
Sgt. LaQuitta Wade said police were en route when they received updated information that someone had been shot.
Officers arrived to find a man – now identified as Sanders – shot outside the apartment building. Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service rushed him to UAB Hospital with life-threatening injuries.
One person was killed and three others wounded when someone kicked open an apartment door where they were playing cards.(Carol Robinson)
They learned there was another victim inside the apartment. Lenard was found unresponsive and pronounced dead on the scene at 11:23 p.m.
Wade said another man and woman were shot and fled the apartment. They made it a short distance away but then were found by BFRS and also taken to UAB.
The preliminary investigation indicates the victims were inside the second-story apartment when the suspect kicked in the front door and fired shots.
Someone at the apartment returned fire, striking Sanders.
The bullets damaged the apartment below, as well as others, Wade said.
University Crossings apartments, formerly known as Montevallo Gardens, is in the Titusville community and was the scene of a homicide earlier this year.
Monday was the fifth time since 2022 that the apartments have been the scene of a homicide investigation – including one during Spring Break 2023 when a teen was killed in a shootout.
Once released from the hospital, Sanders will be held without bond.
