One week ago today, the unfathomable happened to Sharon Kaye Billups Portis and those who loved her.

It was about 6:30 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 9, when a passerby by found the body of the 63-year-old Portis near her beloved bicycle on 18th Street in Ensley.

The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office would later determine that Portis was killed in a dog attack, likely the night before as she was leaving work.

Portis is one of just four people killed by dogs in Jefferson County since 1990. Two of those were killed in 2023 alone.

A third attack this year in Tarrant left two people seriously injured.

“We’re just speechless, devastated that she would be taken from us in this manner,’’ said her sister, LaSharn Faush. “It’s heartbreaking.”

Portis was one of nine siblings in the Billups family.

“She was the life of the party. A beautiful spirit. Very lively. Very funny,’’ Faush said. “She got a long with everybody. She was kind and caring.”

Portis loved to dress well.

“Anytime you saw her, she was going to be dressed to the nines and she was carrying herself like, ‘I looked good,’’’ Faush said.

“And she always kept color on her hair, like for breast cancer month,’’ her sister said. “She just liked seeing people smile.”

The family grew up in the Ensley area and when most moved away, Portis said.

“She loved Ensley,’’ Faush said.

Cleaning was a another of Portis’ passions. It’s also how she made her living.

“She would put everybody out. She didn’t want any direction or supervision,’’ Faush said. “She wanted it to be perfect.”

Portis loved her bicycle.

“She used to have a car a long time ago, but she just liked to ride that bike,’’ her sister said. “She was getting exercise, and that was her primary form of transportation.”

“She wasn’t going from Ensley,’’ Faush said. “If she had to go somewhere outside of the area, she would call family to come and pick her up or she would ride the bus.”

The family said she was leaving work when they believe she was attacked.

“The coroner was saying he felt she had been out there all night,’’ she said. “We’re devastated. We really are.”

Faush said she’s not aware of Portis ever mentioning seeing dangerous dogs on her daily route.

“That’s why it was strange,’’ she said. “In this world that she traveled all the time, all of the sudden dogs appeared.”

Earlier this year, on Feb. 28, 73-year-old Joe Cleveland Scott was found dead on a west Jefferson County roadside, fatally mauled by a pack of dogs.

The discovery was made just before 7 a.m. that Tuesday by a passerby in the area of Iceland Avenue and Utica Place.

Authorities said there were six large dogs around Scott when they arrived. The attack is believed to have happened at 6:49 a.m.

Animal control had to be called to trap the dogs before investigators could begin their probe. The trapping took more than an hour. The dogs were euthanized.

Before the deaths of Portis and Scott, it had been more than 20 years since a fatal dog attack in Jefferson County.

On Dec. 1, 2001, 3-year-old Tristen Gambrel was mauled by three Rottweiler dogs in the back yard of a Birmingham residence.

His mother made the tragic discovery that Saturday morning after she awoke, didn’t see him in his room and went outside to find him bitten on the inner thigh and head.

On May 7, 1990, an 89-year-old man was killed by dogs at a residence in Bessemer.

Aside from Portis, authorities were able to identify the dogs responsible for the fatal attacks.

“The issue that we’re going to run into is that there is no way, unless we have video evidence, to pinpoint which dog or dogs fatally wounded Mrs. Portis,’’ said Birmingham police Officer Truman Fitzgerald.

“We don’t know who the dogs belong to and if they belong to anyone,’’ he said. “We may be dealing with a pack of stray dogs.”

Fitzgerald said police have reached out to the City of Birmingham’s animal control division – which is not part of the police department – and “expressed the urgency” of setting up traps in the area for stray dogs.

“We have stressed that we have to do something immediately to set up traps in that area because of the fear that these dogs might attack again,’’ he said.

GBHS Animal Control CEO Allison Black Cornelius said she’s beyond frustrated at the lack of action taken on potentially dangerous dog packs, which she said often “hunt” at dusk and dawn.

“GBHS does track data and we know why the issue of stray dogs, especially fractious stray dogs, is a problem and why these incidents are increasing,’’ Cornelius said. “The question is whether municipalities within our county are willing to change current polices in order to address the problem.

Cornelius said GBHS has tried multiple times to address the issue with the City of Birmingham, as well as the City of Bessemer.

“Sheriff (Mark) Pettway has a department solely committed to animal investigation and response,’’ she said. “This has been enormously helpful with managing problems in the unincorporated Jefferson County jurisdiction.”

She said GBHS has offered to pay for spay/neuters for the public and to have its officers enforce the tethering act, an ordinance passed by Birmingham in 2020 that makes it illegal for dogs to be tethered for more than eight consecutive hours.

“We cannot get traction on these offers of assistance,’’ Cornelius said.

Cornelius said her team met with a group of Jackson-Olin High School students on a separate project and they identified the issue of stray dogs as a top safety concern in their neighborhood.

“We had an excellent meeting, shared our data with the students, and offered to help them in any way they asked,’’ Cornelius said. She said the students told GBHS they had met with city officials and were told that there was little the city could because of “home rule.”

Cornelius said the issue is not being caused by a large group of irresponsible pet owners.

“These animals (primarily dogs) come from hot spots where there are illegal breeding operations that are in plain sight and are ignored,’’ she said. “They are also caused by a few pet owners who refuse to safely and properly contain their unaltered dogs.”

“Most pet owners do not allow their pets to run free unaltered,’’ she said, “and most canine owners do not tie or chain their pets for a majority of a 24-hour period.”

Faush said her family wants a full investigation into the death of Portis.

“And I want the investigation to be thorough,’’ she said. “She was our sister and we loved her.”

“We want to have peace and we want to have closure,’’ Faush said.

A vigil in memory of Portis will be held Monday, Nov. 20, at 5 p.m. on 18th Street Ensley where Portis was killed.

“We’re just cherishing the memories that we have and just trying to stay encouraged and lifted during this very difficult time,” Faush said. “Riding through Ensley won’t be the same knowing she’s not there.”