Violent weekend in Jefferson County leaves 4 dead in 3 different cities; victims now identified
Authorities have released the names of three people shot to death in three different Jefferson County cities over the weekend.
The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office on Monday identified the victims as Ja’Korian Rashad Maiden, 23, Kaziya Nykysha Page, 25, and Martinez Laudell Smith, 21.
A fourth person, 40-year-old Jeffrey Derrick Pleasant, was also killed over the weekend and had already been identified by Birmingham police.
Maiden, of Birmingham, was fatally shot about 3 a.m. Saturday at a gas station in the 600 block of Decatur Highway. Fultondale police arrived to find Maiden with a gunshot wound to the chest.
He was pronounced dead on the scene at 3:29 a.m.
His girlfriend, 30-year-old Aryan Shabrei Smith, was later taken into custody and is charged with capital murder.
Aryan Shabrei Smith, 30, has turned herself in to police and is charged with capital murder in her boyfriend’s shooting death. The shooting happened around 3 a.m. April 8 at the Shell station in the 600 block of Decatur Highway in Fultondale.
Page, of Birmingham, was found shot at 11:42 a.m. Saturday in the breezeway of an apartment complex in the 200 block of Robert Jemison Road, said Sgt. John Carr.
Page was shot twice in the lower abdomen and taken to UAB Hospital where she was pronounced dead at 2:18 p.m.
The suspect, also a woman, was taken into custody by Homewood police shortly before 4:30 p.m. The arrest was made at a residence in the 1200 block of Circle Trail in Birmingham.
Formal charges have not yet been announced. The coroner’s office said the deadly shooting resulted frm a domestic dispute.
Three people were shot – one of them fatally – when an argument took place at a private event center in the the 200 block of Eighth Avenue West on April 9, 2023. (BPD)
Smith, of Birmingham, was one of three people shot when gunfire erupted during an argument at a party early Sunday in Birmingham.
North Precinct officers were on patrol near Legion Field when, about 2:40 a.m., they heard shots fired.
Officer Truman Fitzgerald said the officers drove to the 200 block of Eighth Avenue West where they found two men in the roadway. Both had been shot.
An officer applied a tourniquet to one of the victims. Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service then transported both to a hospital.
Fitzgerald said those victims’ injuries are not believed to be life threatening.
While officers were on the scene investigating, they learned Smith had been taken by private vehicle to Princeton Baptist Medical Center. He was pronounced dead at the hospital at 3:11 a.m.
Fitzgerald said all three victims were attending a party that was held a private event center when an argument erupted inside and spilled over to the outside. The argument turned into a physical altercation, and then shots were fired.
No arrests have been announced.