2nd man indicted in deadly shooting near Birmingham park

2nd man indicted in deadly shooting near Birmingham park

A second 20-year-old has been indicted in a 2022 fatal shooting near a Birmingham park.

A Jefferson County grand jury in May indicted James Devontae Flannigan on a charge of reckless manslaughter. AL.com previously reported an indictment Kelan Wayne Hutchins, also 20.

Both are charged in the Sept. 11, 2022, death of 21-year-old Nickelas Kristerpher Kelley.

Hutchins is out of jail on $30,000 bond. Flannigan has been in the Jefferson County Jail without bond since Jan. 26 on unrelated charges including attempted murder and robbery.

It was just before 11:30 p.m. that Sunday that the city’s gunfire detection system – Shot Spotter – alerted Birmingham police to multiple shots fired near Rozelle Reynolds Park in the 6100 block of Avenue O in the Green Acres neighborhood.

A citizen then flagged down an officer and reported that a person was slumped over outside of a vehicle.

Officers arrived to find Kelley unresponsive on the ground. He was pronounced dead on the scene at 11:57 p.m.

Witnesses told investigators that a group of males had been gathered there, and they fled on foot after the shooting.

More than 20 shots were fired, police said, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether more than one person was firing the shots.

The indictments against Flannigan and Hutchins said the recklessly caused the death of Kelly by shooting a gun, which caused the victim to be shot.