Gunfire rang out in a quiet east Birmingham neighborhood, leaving one man dead and launching a search for a killer.

Just after 9:30 p.m. Monday, East Precinct officers received a call of shots fired in the 800 block of School Avenue Road, which is off Gene Reed Road in the Huffman area.

Officer Truman Fitzgerald said while officers were en route, the call was updated to a report of a person shot.

When police arrived on the scene, they found the victim unresponsive in the yard of a house. Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service pronounced him dead.

Fitzgerald said investigators believe the victim was visiting someone at the home when someone he may have known opened fire on him.

The number of shots fired, he said, was close to double digits.

“To have that many shots fired in such a quiet neighborhood, that’s why the calls started coming in the way they did,” Fitzgerald said. “Everyone in the neighborhood has been cooperative and we’re just hoping witnesses continue to come forward to speak to our detectives.

A motive has not yet been determined, and no arrests have been made.

Fitzgerald said homicide detectives will canvas the neighborhood tonight, and return again in the morning to do so again.

The victim is the city’s 39th homicide victim this year, and the first in more than two weeks.

“It’s unfortunate when you have a life lost,” Fitzgerald said. “In 2025 the narrative has been the decrease in homicides, however on a scene is not where we want to brag about that because the family that lost their loved one is not concerned with homicides being down 55 percent.”

Anyone with information is asked to call homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.