One man dead, another detained after shooting in east Birmingham neighborhood

A Wednesday-afternoon shooting in an east Birmingham neighborhood left one man dead and another in police custody.

The gunfire erupted about 5:30 p.m. in the 100 block of 71st Street North. That location was in front of one of the house’s nearest to Wahouma Park.

Officer Truman Fitzgerald said East Precinct officers arrived on the scene to find the victim unresponsive outside of a vehicle. Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service pronounced him dead on the scene.

The suspected shooter remained on the scene. Patrol officers detained him and he was being taken in for questioning.

Fitzgerald said the two men knew each other but did not elaborate.

It will be up to the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office to determine whether criminal charges will be filed.

“There are a lot of answers that our investigators and district attorney’s office will need that right now in the investigation we haven’t asked,’’ Fitzgerald said. “We just haven’t had time to further investigation.”

“We don’t want to speculate or give any answers we don’t have,’’ he said. “We’re not withholding information – we just don’t have answers to some complex questions that are going to be presented in this case.”

The area surrounding Wednesday’s crime scene was highly emotional, with dozens of friends and family members of the victim gathered there, including the victim’s mother.

Extra officers were brought in for crowd control.

The victim is Birmingham’s 62nd homicide this year. Of those, one was an officer-involved shooting from an outside law enforcement agency and four others have been ruled justifiable.

In all of Jefferson County, there have been 91 homicides, including the 62 in Birmingham.

Anyone with additional information is asked to call Birmingham detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.