There was an earie quiet at Birmingham’s Monarch Ridge Apartments Wednesday, just 14 hours after a shootout turned the parking lot into a war zone and left a young mother dead.

Many residents were inside their homes today, and some kept their children home from school.

Others huddled in small groups, talking about the deadly shooting and the fear and anxiety left in its wake.

“I was so scared. I was shocked,’’ said resident Shannin Ross, who was outside in the parking lot when the gunfire erupted and witnessed the entire ordeal.

“I almost lost my mind.”

Violence is not new to the complex, formerly known as Valley Brook Apartments.

It has been a hotspot for shootings and homicides off and on for years and was the subject of previous legal action by the city of Birmingham.

Sometimes things get better, but violence always ramps back up, residents said..

“It has gotten worse,’’ said former resident Angela Allen who often visits friends and family at the property.

“I’ve seen people get shot, and I’ve seen people make up, but this is the worst I’ve ever seen it.”

Asia Alyce Poole, 21, was killed Tuesday night in a barrage of gunfire that also wounded one of her close friends.

Poole, a Monarch Ridge resident, left behind a daughter who started pre-kindergarten this week. The child’s 21-year-old father died on July 26.

Poole’s acquaintances said there was an ongoing dispute her and another woman.

It culminated Tuesday night when the two women got into a physical fight in the parking lot, which escalated into a brawl and then a shootout.

The fight and subsequent shooting were captured on Facebook live videos.

The initial calls were of shots fired, and then officers were updated that someone had been shot, said Sgt. LaQuitta Wade.

When officers arrived, they found Poole unresponsive near in the breezeway of her own apartment building. Birmingham firefighters pronounced her dead on the scene at 10:31 p.m.

Poole had posted her own live video from the parking lot shortly before the fight.

After the shooting, the heartbreaking cries of Poole’s brother and sister could be heard on the videos.

A man who was close friends with Poole was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Someone – believed to include the woman with whom Poole was fighting – fled in Poole’s Ford sedan.

The stolen car was found abandoned in the parking lot of J Wings on Center Point Parkway a short time later.

Police still have not officially released the number of shots fired, but said it could be in excess of 150.

It’s likely police weren’t able to recover all of the shell casings. On Wednesday, a spent bullet was seen outside of the breezeway where Poole died.

Residents and witnesses said described the shooting as “something out of a movie” and said it appeared to be premeditated.

There were multiple shooters, they said, some wearing masks and armed with assault-type rifles and guns with Glock switches.

“They came for this,’’ said one resident, who asked that her name not be used for fear of retaliation. “They were so organized. They had everything blocked off, everyone corralled in.”

Ross said there were at least three people initially shooting directly toward breezeway where Poole was ultimately killed.

Poole and her friend “hit the ground,” and then her friend picked her up and they were able to make it to the breezeway.

After the initial shots were fired, witnesses said, somebody came from another breezeway and opened fire.

Then, residents said, shots came from every direction.

Police said it appeared once the shooting started, multiple people not included in the original fight began firing weapons as well.

Police and witnesses said Poole was struck at least twice.

A couple of nurses, Ross said, checked for her pulse and found none.

“She was gone,’’ Ross said.

“That shit is stuck in my head,’’ she said. “This little girl is gone because of a fight.”

The spray of bullets hit multiple cars and several apartments.

One resident, who also asked not to be identified, showed the bullet holes that entered her apartment, one of which shattered a glass table.

“All the children up here didn’t go to school today. All the kids are in the house,’’ Allen said. “They’re scared to come out because they don’t know if there will be retaliation, if it’s over with.”

“They don’t want them at the bus stop in case somebody comes back shooting,’’ she said.

Residents and city officials are searching for remedies.

The city of Birmingham in June 2021 filed a lawsuit against Steele Valley Brook LLC, arguing Monarch Ridge was a public nuisance. The suit came a month after a 29-year-old father was killed at the complex.

When the city sued, it said police officers had responded to at least two homicides and four other gun-related incidence since February 7, 202.

The suit was settled two months later when the owner agreed to pay $15,000 to the city’s neighborhood revitalization fund, keep using a license plate reader and sharing data with Birmingham police and make the complex’s surveillance system accessible to the police department’s crime center.

At the time, the agreement called for the owner to employ a gate guard from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily, keep using off-duty Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies for security patrols and cooperate with the city on a 90-day study of whether more security measures were needed.

The city agreed to dismiss the lawsuit with the court enforcing the settlement for one year.

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and City Attorney Nicole King said they are investigating the next steps to take against the owners of the complex.

“The shooters have two options: They can immediately turn themselves in to Birmingham police or be hunted down by BPD and U.S. marshals,” Woodfin posted on social media.

Residents are pleading for help.

“My biggest worry is that I’m going to get killed by somebody shooting at somebody else,’’ said Ross, who said she sent her children to live with their father to keep them safe. “I can’t even go to work and come home without worrying about getting shot at.”

“I have to live here,’’ she said. “Everything else in Birmingham is high as hell,” she said of area rental prices.

The firepower, residents said, is out of control and that officers’ weapons are no match for the those used by criminals.

“They need to upgrade the police guns and body armor,’’ Ross said. “It would stop it if they know (police officers) got the same guns they got and would use it against them.”

“The police are even in danger,’’ she said. “They need to be able fight fire with fire.”