Q&A: Gulf States Newsroom reporters discuss covering Birmingham mass shooting

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By Drew Hawkins and Stephan Bisaha/Gulf States Newsroom

Five Points South is a neighborhood in the middle of Birmingham, Alabama, where five roads come together at one traffic light, and where people come together because there’s so much to do.

It’s the kind of place you’d recommend to someone visiting town. There’s a high-end French restaurant across from a pancake house. A Philly cheesesteak shop next to an Indian restaurant.

And, on Saturday night this past weekend, it’s where a mass shooting happened that killed four people and wounded 17 others as they stood outside a hookah lounge enjoying their evening.

Gulf States Newsroom’s health equity reporter Drew Hawkins stayed at a hotel in the same block that weekend. He was in town for an unrelated reporting trip and brought his family to make it a mini-vacation. After a day of exploring the city — hitting the Pepper Place farmer’s market in the morning and the McWane Science Center in the afternoon — his wife and two children went back to their hotel room to hang out and watch movies, while Hawkins went out into the field to report.

He’d just returned to the hotel, quietly slipping in to avoid waking everyone up, and laid down to go to sleep when automatic gunfire erupted. He and his wife jumped out of bed and went to the window, where they saw people running and screaming. He grabbed his reporting gear and went to see what was going on.

Hawkins walked out into the immediate aftermath — a harrowing and chaotic scene — arriving before the police did. While he was there, he called the Gulf States Newsroom’s senior reporter, Stephan Bisaha, who lives in Birmingham, just over a mile from where the shooting happened. The two quickly got to work reporting, working all night and into the morning.

Hawkins and Bisaha sat down to discuss that night from their points of view and the latest updates of the ongoing investigation into the mass shooting.

Editor’s Note: The following conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. It contains descriptions of violence and death.

DREW HAWKINS: Stephan, you were at a police press conference earlier this week. What did they say happened?

STEPHAN BISAHA: So the shooting happened outside Hush Lounge in Birmingham and people were outside, some waiting to get in, and someone, possibly multiple people together, drove by and fired into the crowd. More than 100 shell casings were found at the scene. And possibly this was from an automatic weapon or at least a gun modified to act like an automatic weapon.

HAWKINS: All of that really matches what I saw and heard there. What do we know about the people who were caught up in the shooting?

BISAHA: Yeah, the police have released the names of the people killed. We have an Anitra Holloman. We have Tahj Booker. We have Carlos McCain and Robert Lynn Patterson. All young in their 20s and from the Birmingham area.

Now, police say this was likely a targeted killing. The police wouldn’t say who was a target, but Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond spoke at a press conference earlier this week. And it did catch my ear how he took the time to blame the criminal record of at least one of the victims.

PATTERSON: And unfortunately, being in that lifestyle, you know, that culture and things unfortunately ended in their demise.

BISAHA: We also heard about other victims at the press conference. One was in line at this nightclub waiting to celebrate his birthday with some friends.

HAWKINS: You know, one of the things that really stands out to me from that night was a moment where a man was walking around the scene just distraught. And he just kept saying over and over, “Why?” So what do we know about what’s going on with the investigation? Do we know why this happened?

BISAHA: Well, again, police do think this may have been a targeted killing. But as of us recording this now on Wednesday afternoon, please just don’t have much to go on. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said earlier this week that people in the city really need to share what they know about the shooting.

WOODFIN: Because as a community we cannot give safe harbor or shelter to people who want to just simply kill people.

BISAHA: And police have long complained about a “no-snitch” culture in Birmingham.

HAWKINS: Yeah, I’m from New Orleans and that’s a problem there as well. So you can sometimes see these retaliatory shootings targeting specific individuals. And innocent bystanders get caught in the crossfire.

BISAHA: Yeah. And police blame this “no-snitch” culture for so much gun violence going unsolved in Birmingham. Now, there’s even a record reward of $100,000 being offered for information on this killing. And that’s a first for Birmingham. Both the police and FBI are emphasizing that people can remain anonymous. The mayor even said witness protection is an option here.

And Drew — how are you doing? I mean, you were in the thick of it and one of the first people on the scene before even the police got there.

HAWKINS: Yeah, I guess I can say one thing I’m thankful for is that my kids actually slept through it. So thank god for white noise machines, you know?

But I got down to the scene really before the police had even arrived. And I saw and I heard some really disturbing images and sounds that I don’t think I’ll forget really ever. I saw a young woman killed who I later learned was Anitra Holloman. She was dressed for a night out on the town, you know, just a young lady enjoying her Saturday evening. And she leaves behind a young daughter who she was raising herself because her boyfriend was shot and killed when she was four months pregnant. So that’s a little girl who is now an orphan because of gun violence. And a man near her who was standing right next to me, he saw her body and he screamed out that that was his sister.

Eventually, swarms of police showed up and totally locked down the area. I may have actually been one of the last to leave. I had to climb under the crime scene tape to get out. And yeah, you know, I had called you and I went back to the hotel. I set up my laptop in the lobby and I just got to work reporting.

BISAHA: Drew, I’m glad you’re okay. And thank you again so much for your reporting that night and being on top of it.

HAWKINS: Thanks, Stephan. And you know, seriously, thank you for answering the call that night.

This story was produced by the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration between Mississippi Public Broadcasting, WBHM in Alabama, WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana and NPR.