Authorities have released the names of two men shot to death in Birmingham over the weekend.
The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office on Monday identified the victims as Victor Alberto Jeronimo Garcia, 27, and Dementrius Orlando Collins, 19.
Garcia was found shot to death Saturday morning in southwest Birmingham.
West Precinct officers were dispatched shortly after 8:30 a.m. to the 2500 block of Snavely Avenue on a report of a person shot. They arrived to find Garcia unresponsive inside a vehicle.
He was pronounced dead on the scene at 8:48 a.m. It wasn’t immediately clear what time the shooting happened.
Officer Truman Fitzgerald said the discovery was made when a neighborhood resident spotted the victim inside the vehicle and then called 911.
No arrests have been announced.
Collins died early Monday in a hail of gunfire in the city’s Kingston community.
Roughly 70 rounds were unleashed just before 1 a.m. in the Rev. Dr Morrell Todd Homes in the city’s Kingston community.
South Precinct officers were alerted at 12:50 a.m. that the city’s gunfire detection system – Shot Spotter – had registered numerous shots fired in the 4600 block of Roscoe Avenue. Dispatchers then notified officers that someone had been hit.
Once at the complex, police found Collins unresponsive in the front yard of an apartment building.
Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service worked on the victim and loaded him in the rescue unit to transport but were unable to save him. He was pronounced dead on the scene 1:12 a.m.
While police were in Kingston, they learned a second vehicle had stopped on Interstate 59/20 near the Tallapoosa Street exit with a gunshot victim inside.
Officer Truman Fitzgerald said investigators determined that victim had been shot in Kingston and was trying to get to the hospital before the driver stopped to call for help.
He said he didn’t yet know how many guns were fired.
“We’re still determine who was a target, if they were a target at all,’’ he said. “However, we had a bunch of rounds fired and right now we’re in the early stages.”
One week ago, a gunfight in Kingston during which 90 rounds were fired left one man dead, and another jailed. That shooting happened during the evening hours of Memorial Day and was captured on surveillance cameras.
“For one, you have an issue with guns being in the wrong hands,’’ Fitzgerald said. “Two, we need Kingston residents to help us out, get those who don’t belong in the neighborhood out of here.”
“Any patrol officer who has worked in a housing community will tell you nine times out of 10, the people who live in the housing community are amazing people,’’ he said. “It’s normally people who are outside of the housing community that cause the issues.”
“We have a group of individuals that are bringing their drama, their trouble here and terrorizing the residents because of that,’’ Fitzgerald said. “When you see activity that is suspicious give us a call because as you have seen, you have beefs coming into the Kingston Community that never originated here.”
The weekend victims marked the city’s 56th and 57th homicides this year. Of those, one was an officer-involved shooting by an outside law enforcement agency and four others have been ruled justifiable and therefore aren’t deemed criminal.
In all of Jefferson County, there have been 80 homicides including the 57 in Birmingham.
Anyone with information is asked to call homicide investigators at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
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