Friends are mourning the weekend shooting death of a man who was killed following a fender bender on a Birmingham interstate ramp.

Willie Robert “Bill” Morgan, 55, died Saturday just blocks from his longtime place of employment – Luttrell Architectural Woodworks.

Morgan was a custom woodworker for the company, which builds high-end cabinets, furniture and commercial architectural woodwork. He had been working there for 20 years.

“He was dedicated to what he did here. He was very good at it,’’ employer Robert Luttrell said. “He had developed into one of the better craftsmen we’ve ever had.”

“He wanted what he was doing to be as good and as high quality as it could be,’’ Luttrell said.

On Saturday, Luttrell said, Morgan was heading to the woodworking shop because he had misplaced his cell phone and was going to check to see if he had left it at work.

“He made it to 31st Street, which is where our shop is,’’ Luttrell said, “but didn’t make it all the way.”

Birmingham police were dispatched just before 2 p.m. to a report of a person shot on the I-59 southbound ramp at the 31st Street North exit.

Officers arrived to find the Morgan unresponsive, and fire medics pronounced him dead on the scene at 2:03 p.m.

Police said the investigation showed Morgan and the suspect – 37-year-old Leon Ruffin of Bessemer – were involved in a minor crash on the off-ramp.

At least part of the incident was captured on surveillance video from a nearby gas station, and showed Morgan get out of his pickup truck and approach the driver’s side of the car in front of him.

Within seconds, the car drove off and Morgan’s body was on the ground.

The suspect fled but was quickly identified. Led by Interim Police Chief Michael Pickett, the police department’s Special Enforcement Team took the suspect into custody in Pleasant Grove.

Ruffin is charged with capital murder. He remains held without bond in the Jefferson County Jail.

Luttrell said he was at work that day but did not hear of the shooting until Sunday afternoon.

“A lot of our people have been here a long time so everybody’s close and knew each other well,’’ Luttrell said. “Having to break that news Monday morning was not something you want to do.”

“I think everybody’s still a little bit in shock about it,’’ he said, “and trying to cope with it.”

Luttrell said he did see the video of the killing.

“It was hard to watch,’’ he said. “And it looked to me like it was just a couple of seconds from the time Bill got to the guy’s window or door that he started to drive off, so there wasn’t a whole lot of arguing going on. He just shot him, it looked like to me.”

Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.