A 51-year-old Domino’s pizza delivery man gunned down in Birmingham during an apparent robbery is being remembered as a model employee and a kind, compassionate man who was his mother’s caretaker.

“He was an ideal human being,’’ Chris Daugherty, owner of the Roebuck Domino’s, said of employee and friend Derek Marcus Burpo.

“It doesn’t seem possible that something like this would happen to someone like Derek. He was just good.”

“He was a super quiet, gentle soul that never bothered anybody,’’ he said. “We’re just lost.”

“He was very kind, very hardworking, business-minded,’’ said his first cousin, Daphne Ballard. “He wanted to do something. “

“I had a soft spot for him,’’ Ballard said.

Just before 9 p.m. Wednesday, Birmingham police were dispatched on a call of shots fired in the 400 block of Roebuck Drive on the city’s east side.

Officers arrived to find Burpo, affectionately known by family as “Dink,” unresponsive outside of his car in front of a house on a private road. The Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service pronounced him dead on the scene at 9:42 p.m.

Burpo’s car contained pizzas he was set to deliver.

Police on Thursday said no arrests have been made.

“This is one of the most heartbreaking homicides that we have witnessed in our city,’’ said Officer Truman Fitzgerald.

“Here you have a man that’s out on the very first day of 2025 working to support his story and someone committed the worst robbery you could commit. They robbed a family of their loved one.”

Burpo graduated from Huffman High School in 1991, and then Alabama State University. He also had his MBA, and family said he was working toward a PhD.

His brother, 36-year-old Darryl Burpo, was killed in a 2004 Birmingham homicide.

“Their mom has now lost both her sons,’’ Ballard said.

After college, Burpo worked for car dealerships and then began selling insurance.

When the COVID pandemic slowed down sales, she said, he took a job with Domino’s. That was about two years ago.

“He worked six days a week, from 4 p.m. until closing, whether that was midnight or 2 a.m.,” Ballard said. “He was old school. He was not afraid, but he didn’t mess with anybody.”

Daugherty said Burpo was a hard worker who was loved by him and the Roebuck Domino’s team.

“He was just a model employee,’’ he said. “He was awesome to be around.”

Daugherty was called to the crime scene Wednesday night.

“It doesn’t seem real,” Daugherty said. “My heart is broken.”

“It is the worst nightmare,’’ he said. “It’s just unfathomable.”

It’s also senseless.

As a policy, Domino’s drivers carry less than $20 in case, usually less than $15.

“We already have pretty strict security,’’ Daugherty said. “I don’t know what else today except maybe go 100 percent cashless. I just don’t know.”

The Roebuck Domino’s was closed on Thursday.

“I couldn’t act like today was another day,’’ Daugherty said.

Ballard said Burpo loving took care of his mother, who will turn 82 years old on Friday.

“It was just them two,’’ she said. “He recently surprised her with roses and perfume, and told her, ‘I just want you to get better.’’

“I said, ‘Dink, I’m going to tell the world you did that because that was so sweet,’’’ Ballard said. “It touched me so much.”

“His mom told me, ‘I wouldn’t be able to make it if it wasn’t for him,’’’ Ballard said.

Burpo lived not even one minute away from where he was killed.

“His mama probably heard the shots,’’ Ballard said.

When Burpo left for work Wednesday, he made sure he knew his mother was leaving.

“He touched, shook her, and said, ‘I’m gone,’’’ Ballard said.

Burpo’s mother was a longtime seamstress for department stores Parisian and Gus Mayer before she became a caretaker herself. She fully retired last year, amid health struggles.

“She was preparing, putting Dink’s name on everything, thinking she was going to leave him first,” Ballard said. “That was her baby. It just shocked the whole family that it was him.”

Burpo, Ballard said, was soft-spoken and kind. He loved soft drinks and red apples.

“He didn’t deserve this,’’ she said.

The family is now praying for justice.

As for the shooters, Ballard had this to say: “You’ve got to realize you’re taking people’s lives, and you can’t get them back.”

“If we can never put a face to what happened, I hope you know you’ve left people hurting,’’ she said. “People with a conscious don’t do things like this. You’ve got to be a miserable person to do this.”

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