A suspect has been charged in the blunt force trauma death of a 58-year-old man at a western Birmingham convenience store.

Lawanza Dynail McCormick, 45, is charged with murder in the beating death of Cedric Reese.

The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office earlier Friday announced the death Reese.

Authorities said the assault happened at 1:57 p.m. on July 12 at the 5 Way convenience store on Eighth Avenue in Wylam. Reese sustained blunt force trauma by being hit with an undisclosed object.

Officer Truman Fitzgerald said Reese refused to be taken to a hospital following the assault.

The next day, said Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates, a friend went to check on Reese and found him unresponsive inside his home on Fifth Avenue in Wylam. He was pronounced dead on the scene at 2:57 p.m.

Yates said the autopsy showed Reese died from the injuries sustained in the assault.

Police on Friday said a patrol officer was able to identify McCormick as the suspect.

He was taken into custody Tuesday by the police department’s Crime Reduction Team and remains held without bond in the Jefferson County Jail.

Reese is Birmingham’s 79th homicide this year. Of those one was an officer involved shooting by an outside law enforcement agency and seven others have been ruled justifiable and therefore aren’t deemed criminal.

In all of Jefferson County, there have been 111 homicides, including the 79 in Birmingham.

Anyone with additional information on the case is asked to call homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.