A shooting death in Birmingham’s Titusville community set a tragic new record for the city as police investigated the 149th homicide of the year — breaking the city’s 91-year-old homicide record.

Police were called to 224 3rd Ave. S. at about 7:34 p.m. They arrived to find a man dead in the front yard of a vacant house.

With 13 days left in 2024, the shooting broke the city’s all-time high record for homicides, set in 1933.

“It’s important for us as a department to remember there’s a name, and a face, and a family connected to each homicide that we respond to,’’ said Officer Truman Fitzgerald.

“Our community members aren’t just numbers. They have names, and families that grieving right now so we have to do what we can to bring them justice.”

South Precinct officers were dispatched to the neighborhood on a Shot Spotter alert.

Fitzgerald said the preliminary investigation indicates the victim was at the vacant house with a group of people.

“There was some sort of argument that led to the suspect shooting the victim,’’ he said.

Investigators were canvassing the neighborhood, going door-to-door in search of anyone who may have witnessed the killing or perhaps had home surveillance systems.

Several witnesses did stay on the scene.

“We are looking for more witnesses,’’ Fitzgerald said, adding that the known witnesses were to distraught to provide all of the information needed.

The deadly record comes as Birmingham’s population has suffered years of decline and as police this year have been called to investigate multiple mass shootings and three quadruple homicides.

The city’s population today is a little under 197,000 people, giving the city a murder rate of 7.5 homicides per 10,000 people.

In 1933, Birmingham had roughly 259,000 people, giving the city a murder rate of 5.7 homicides for every 10,000 people.

This year has seen three shootings that resulted in four deaths:

• A Feb. 16 quadruple homicide in Smithfield left Talton “TJ” Tait, 36, Cortez Ray, 32, Terrell Edwards, 38, and Kevin McGhee, 38, dead in a broad daylight drive-by shooting.
• Angela Weatherspoon, 56, of Center Point, Markeisha Gettings, 42, of Birmingham, Stevie McGhee, 39, of Birmingham, and Lerandus Anderson, 24, of Center Point, were killed at a shooting at a birthday party at a nightclub on July 13.
• On Sept. 21, four people were killed and 17 injured in a mass shooting outside the Hush hookah lounge in Five Points South. Those killed were Carlos McCain, 27, Roderick Lynn Patterson Jr., 26, Anitra Holloman, 21, and Tahj Booker, 27.

Damien Laron McDaniel III, 22, of Fairfield, is a suspect in the July and September mass shootings and is accused of killing a total of 11 people and wounding 29 others in five Birmingham incidents between July and September.

The new record comes after 2023 saw a break in a years-long trend of a growing number of homicides in Birmingham

The city ended 2023 with 135 homicides, a 6.25% drop over 2022 which had 144 homicides.

Birmingham’s 2022 homicide total was the deadliest year in recent city history — 141 in 1991.

Birmingham ended 2021 with 132 homicides; 2020 with 122 homicides; 2019 with 106 homicides; and 2018 with 107 homicides.

Of the 149 homicides in 2024, 11 have been ruled justifiable and therefore aren’t deemed criminal. One of the homicides was an officer-involved shooting, and two others were shootings that happened in previous years, but the victims died in 2024.

Fitzgerald said the department obviously hopes there will be no more homicides in 2024.

“We want peace, we’ve wanted that this entire year,’’ he said. “One positive thing we can point out is our detectives are really doing an amazing job when it comes to their clearance rate.”

“I can say that we have upwards to a 60 percent clearance rate based on some numbers we got today,’’ Fitzgerald said. “That competes nationally.”

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