Birmingham Police: Five Points South mass shooting may have been murder-for-hire; 4 dead, 17 injured

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A mass shooting in Birmingham’s Five Points South neighborhood late Saturday night left at least four people dead and 17 injured.

Birmingham Police Officer Truman Fitzgerald said police were called to the 2000 block of Magnolia Avenue South just after 11 p.m. for a shots fired call.

At the scene, multiple people pulled over in a car and fired with at least one automatic weapon at one person before getting back into the vehicle and fleeing the scene, Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond said in an update Sunday morning. More than 100 shell casings were collected at the scene, among other pieces of evidence, and bystanders were caught in the crossfire.

“To the victims and the victims’ families, our heartfelt condolences go out to them,” Thurmond said. “That’s 21 people whose lives were forever changed. That’s 21 families that were destroyed. Our hearts go out to them as we work through this, but this is going to take some time for us.”

Thurmond said the shooting was not random and may have stemmed from an alleged murder-for-hire against an individual in the Five Points South entertainment district at the time. No one is in custody, but police are asking for businesses and witnesses to report any information they have.

“The public is the eyes and ears of the city and the police department,” Thurmond said. “They know far more than we will ever know. They’ve got to share that information with us so we can act on it and remove those people from the streets of Birmingham.”

The targeted individual is among the four dead. At the scene, police found two men and a woman who were shot and unresponsive. They were later pronounced dead at the scene.

The fourth deceased victim, a man, was among eight people transported by Birmingham Fire and Rescue Services to the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital for gunshot wounds.

Other gunshot victims arrived at Ascension St. Vincent’s Hospital, Brookwood Baptist Medical Center and Princeton Baptist Medical Center on their own seeking treatment. Injuries for the other victims range from critical to non-life threatening.

City and police officials believe a switch — a small device that can convert a semi-automatic handgun into a fully automatic weapon — may have been used in the shooting.

Initial reports on social media said the shooting possibly took place at a nearby nightclub, but Fitzgerald said police were told all the victims were out in the open — either on the sidewalk or in the street.

“We were not told this happened in any businesses,” he said.

Birmingham’s homicide total for 2024 is at 122, including Saturday night’s four deaths, according to AL.com. It’s the third quadruple homicide this year, following a drive-by shooting in the Smithfield neighborhood on Feb. 16 and a drive-by shooting at an adult birthday party on July 13.

At Sunday’s update, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said everyone in the city owes it to the victims and their families to do everything they can to bring the shooters to justice. He also spoke to the larger issue of gun violence, calling it not just a problem in Birmingham, but an American problem.

“We find ourselves in 2024, where gun violence is at an epidemic level in our country, and unfortunately, the city of Birmingham finds itself at the tip of that spear,” Woodfin said. “Is it solvable? The answer is yes. Does it require everyone coming together? The answer is also yes.”

The Birmingham Police Department is working on its investigation with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. City and police officials ask any businesses in the area with surveillance cameras to contact police if they captured footage of the shooting. An evidence submission portal has been created, and witnesses are also encouraged to call Crimestoppers at 205-254-7777 with any information.

“There’s a certain element in this community who are too comfortable riding around with semiautomatic weapons, automatic weapons, convergence switches and everything else whose only intent… is to harm people, shoot people, kill people,” Woodfin said. “They don’t care if innocent people are around. We need the necessary tools… so I want to work with the state to solve this problem.”

The Gulf States Newsroom’s Stephan Bisaha, Orlando Flores Jr. and Drew Hawkins contributed to this report.