âInnocentâ victim shot dead on front porch of Birmingham home when gunfire erupts following argument
A man was shot to death Friday afternoon while sitting on the front porch of his north Birmingham home.
Police said a friend or family member of the victim was involved in an argument with a group of people at a different location.
The suspects, said Officer Truman Fitzgerald, followed the person with whom they are arguing to the house in the 1500 block of 19th Street North. That location is in the Fountain Heights community.
It was about 3 p.m. when the suspects opened fire, striking the victim.
“He was completely innocent, sitting on his front porch, enjoying the day,’’ Fitzgerald said.
The victim, whose identity has not been released, died on the scene. No arrests have been made
“Our detectives and patrol officers are working to find out where the original argument took place so we can track these suspects down,’’ Fitzgerald said.
“Again,’’ he said, “let’s just point out, a completely innocent victim.”
The deadly shooting is Birmingham’s third in less than 24 hours and one of two to take place Friday afternoon.
Across town just over an hour earlier, West Precinct officers were dispatched at 1:45 p.m. to the 1000 block of Elm Street on a report of multiple shots fired. While they were en route, they learned someone had been struck.
They arrived on the scene to find the victim unresponsive in the roadway, just outside of his vehicle. He was pronounced dead on the scene.
The Fountain Heights victim is Birmingham’s 45th homicide so far this year. Of those, one was an officer-involved shooting by an outside agency and three others have been ruled justifiable.
In all of Jefferson County, there have been 56 homicides, including the 45 in Birmingham.
Anyone with information is asked to call homicide investigators at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.