Bruce Lanier Austin, the suspect in the slaying of a 14-year-old Birmingham girl killed while she was on her way to school, called 911 moments before the deadly shooting and claimed he was being “hunted,” a detective testified today.

The 37-year-old Austin is charged with capital murder in the Nov. 16 shooting death of Moriah Quib-Marquez.

The 23 rifle rounds police say were fired by Austin also left her mother critically injured with a gunshot wound to the head.

He is also charged with attempted murder in the shooting of Moriah’s mother, and with discharging a gun into an occupied vehicle.

The shooting happened at 8:07 a.m. that Wednesday at 80th Street and Fifth Avenue North.

Officers were dispatched to the area after receiving multiple Shot Spotter alerts. When they arrived, they found an SUV crashed into a utility pole.

Moriah, a seventh grader at Ossie Ware Mitchell Middle School who excelled as a student and athlete, was pronounced dead on the scene.

Her mother, Rosa, was taken by Birmingham firefighters to UAB Hospital after a rifle round entered the right side of her head and remains lodged in the left side of her skull.

Austin appeared before Jefferson County District Judge William Bell Wednesday to hear the evidence against him and to ask that a bond be set in his case.

District Attorney Danny Carr, who is prosecuting the case with Deputy District Attorney Shawn Allen, vehemently opposed to Austin being allowed out on bond, contending he is a danger to the community.

“He basically blew a young lady’s head off and almost killed her mom,’’ Carr told the judge.

Bell did not grant Austin a bond and ruled there was enough evidence against him to send the case to a grand jury for indictment consideration.

Moriah’s father and other family members were in the courtroom, hearing the testimony through a translator that sat with them. More than a dozen of Austin’s family and friends were also present to show support for the suspect.

Multiple police officers also were in the courtroom Wednesday.

Birmingham homicide Det. Nick Clark testified for about an hour, chronicling the evidence against Austin.

Moriah and her mother were in the front seat of an SUV, on their way to pick up someone else on the way to school. Moriah’s father and three other children – ages 10, 6 and 5 – were in the back seat when the shooting happening.

Witnesses told police they heard a shot moments before the SUV crashed into a utility pole. The crash was followed by numerous other shots.

Birmingham’s 911 received calls from eight separate numbers reporting the incident.

Video obtained from the area showed the SUV crash, and also showed a Black male in a red track suit with a long gun in his hand. None of the videos recovered actually captured the shooting.

Investigators recovered 23 rifle shell casings as well as two live rifle rounds at the scene. They later recovered the same caliber round from the floor of a vehicle in which police say Austin left the scene.

Clark said 911 received a call from Austin just prior to the shooting – at 7:58 a.m. The described the call as non-sensical and hard to make out, but Austin claimed he was being “hunted” and shot at.

He would not give dispatchers his location and the call ended shortly afterward.

No evidence was recovered, prosecutors said, that indicated anyone had been shooting at Austin.

A motorist who was in front of the Marquez family’s red Yukon told police he was driving to breakfast when he heard a shot, and then saw the SUV crash.

Clark testified that the witness saw a man in a red track suit with a rifle. He heard a shot, then the crash then multiple other shots fired.

One of the children in the SUV was interviewed at the Prescott House and said she hear a “boom,” and then they wrecked. The wreck, she told investigators, was followed by numerous other shots.

Among the videos retrieved by investigators was footage of the suspect getting into a dark Chrysler 200 following the shooting. Police used Flock cameras and were able to trace that vehicle back to a woman who lived nearby and turned out to be Austin’s girlfriend.

Investigators set up surveillance at the girlfriend’s home and took Austin into custody during a traffic stop after he left the home in the Chrysler.

The girlfriend told police Austin had called and told her to come pick him up in the 400 block of 80th Street North. She said she did not see a gun.

In an interview with police after his arrest, Clark testified, Austin told police he had an ongoing dispute with a man named Craig, who has not been located, and that he was being followed and shot at. Initially he said he did not fire back, the detective said, but later said he a shot.

Austin told the detectives he got rid of the gun and gave a general location, but the gun has not been recovered. Police also did not recover a red track suit.

Austin is represented by attorney Emory Anthony. Under cross examination, the detective acknowledge that they did not search the home of Austin’s mother, where he had been in the hours between the deadly shooting and his arrest, nor did they try to recover her cell phone, which Austin was reportedly using that day.

The detective acknowledged investigators did not, and have not, spoken with any of Austin’s family members as part of the investigation.