BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Capital murder suspect Andrew Goldsmith IV is hospitalized after police say he led officers on a chase, then shot himself.
Officer Truman Fitzgerald said Goldsmith will remain in police custody while he receives lifesaving treatment at UAB hospital.
Officer Fitzgerald said without their Crime Reduction Team this whole incident could have been far worse, but state representative Allen Treadaway said it should have never come to this in the first place.
According to case documents Goldsmith was previously sentenced to 20 years in prison for attempted murder in 2021. 17 of those years were suspended and he’s been out on parole since.
Birmingham police say he’s now charged with capital murder for the shooting death of 24-year-old Corieonna Hines and her unborn child. He’s also charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting two young girls.
“This came down to an individual who made a decision that he was going to take all three victims lives and unfortunately took one victim’s life and her unborn child,” said Officer Fitzgerald.
Police say this specific case had a domestic violence element and they hope to find ways to better help future victims.
“We’ve looked into if there was previous reports between the two and the scary thing is there is no documented reports between Andrew Goldsmith and Corieonna Hines.”
State representative Allen Treadaway says even still this tragedy should have never happened and that with his violent past, Goldsmith should not have been out on parole.
“We need to address this,” said Treadaway, who also chairs the Public Safety Homeland of Security for the state of Alabama. “We need to get serious about crime. We need to stop this false narrative that everybody in prison is just housed there and it’s not doing them no good. It’s punishment. If you’re going to do the crime, then you need to do your time.”
He says releasing and monitoring violent criminals is not the answer, and that legislature needs to address lenient time served.
“And that’s where the state has moved to,” said Treadaway. “They feel like we can monitor people who have a history of violent crime. And we’re letting them out while they’re supposed to be serving time on a violent crime, and we’re somehow surprised that these things happen. We better get serious about this.”
In the upcoming legislative session, Treadaway says the Good Time Behavior laws need to be addressed to hopefully slow down releasing violent criminals too early.
He hopes by strengthening these laws, tragedies like this will stop and victim’s families will no longer have to grieve their loved ones.