A teen has died after he was ambushed in the doorway of a Birmingham gas station Friday evening.
A barrage of gunfire erupted just before 6 p.m. Friday at the Shell station in the 4000 block of Messer Airport Highway.
Officer Truman Fitzgerald said the victim was wounded when a group of people opened fire on him.
“We have multiple spent shell casings and Shot Spotter registered numerous rounds fired,’’ Fitzgerald said. “I would most definitely say it was an ambush.”
Police and fire medics arrived at the store to find the teen unresponsive in the doorway. He was taken to UAB Hospital where he was pronounced dead early Saturday from multiple gunshot wounds.
Authorities have not yet released the name of the victim. He just turned 18 in July.
Fitzgerald on Friday said bullets entered the store but fortunately no one inside was injured.
“The store clerk is shaken up,’’ he said. “We’re thankful that he wasn’t struck by the gunfire.”
Seven people have died from gun violence over the past six days in the city, four of them killed in less than four hours Thursday night and Friday morning.
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin on Friday called the killings “senseless violence” and said the Birmingham Police Department will do everything possible to protect the public and investigate crime.
“But each of us must ask the question: what am I willing to do to change the situation,’’ the mayor said. “As a community, as families, as individuals, we must act responsibly and demand responsibility from those we influence and interact with in our daily lives.”
The mayor Friday night also reminded residents the city has a 2008 curfew law in place for those under the age of 17.
- During daytime school hours
- Weeknights from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.
- Weekend and holiday nights from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.
“We need to understand the safety of our community isn’t only in the hands of police and the laws on the books. We all must play a role and take responsibility,’’ Woodfin said. “As a community, we must learn to police ourselves and keep the peace within our own homes and neighborhoods.”
Fitzgerald said the message to the community in the spate of violence over the past week remains the same.
“Birmingham is a wonderful, beautiful place and we’re being overshadowed by a very small few,’’ Fitzgerald said. “We have to rise above them. When we see things taking place, we have to step forward.”
“Those days of not coming forward and standing up for our community, those days are over with,’’ he said. “We have to have the same tenacity that other communities have when crimes are committed in those communities – when somebody commits a crime in Birmingham, we have to show them that its not going to be tolerated and it’s unacceptable.”
The teen is Birmingham’s 91st homicide victim this year. Of those, six have been ruled justifiable and therefore aren’t deemed criminal.
In all of Jefferson County, there have been 124, including the 91 in Birmingham.
Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
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