Gunfire erupted in Birmingham’s Five Points South entertainment area Saturday night, leaving four people dead and at least 18 others injured. Authorities said they don’t believe the shooting was random, but stemmed from an isolated incident where multiple innocent bystanders were caught in the crossfire.
Officer Truman Fitzgerald said the shooting happened just after 11 p.m. in the 2000 block of Magnolia Avenue South. Initial reports indicate club patrons were waiting in line outside Hush, a hookah and cigar lounge on Magnolia Avenue, when the shooting took place. Witnesses said at least some of the gunfire sounded like it came from a weapon outfitted with a “switch” that converts a gun to full automatic. Detectives are working to confirm it was a drive-by or if the shooters were on foot, police said.
As South Precinct officers responded to the report of shots fired, they learned multiple people had been shot. Once on the scene, they found two men and a woman unresponsive on the sidewalk. Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service pronounced all three dead on the scene. A fourth man was pronounced dead at UAB Hospital.
Officers from throughout the city flocked to Five Points South as a massive perimeter was set up at the chaotic scene. Firefighters took eight of the wounded from the scene. The other victims began showing up at hospitals through Birmingham. “We have dozens of gunshot victims from this area,’’ Fitzgerald said. “I’m told at least four of those gunshot victims are life-threatening.”
Investigators believe multiple shooters fired numerous shots into a group of people on Magnolia Avenue. No arrests have been made. Fitzgerald urged the public to provide any information they have about the shooting to police. Nearby businesses were urged to share surveillance video footage with police. “There’s no information that is too small,’’ he said. “We know this area is saturated with cameras.”
Birmingham Five Points South is an entertainment district with restaurants and nightlife. A large number of police had the streets blocked off as hundreds of people gathered in the popular nightspot neighborhood on Saturday night.
“It’s a beautiful night on a Saturday. This is one of the most popular entertainment districts in Birmingham so you can always expect a crowd,” Fitzgerald said.
“This group of shooters fired on these victims while they were out in the open,’' he said. “This was on a sidewalk or a city street.”
Police worked a homicide earlier this week at nearby Brother Bryan Park, also on Magnolia Avenue, left that scene and responded to a large fight call in the same area where Saturday’s shooting took place.
Asked if the area was a trouble spot, Fitzgerald said, it “is known to our officers as a spot where people congregate because there are local businesses nearby that they patronize.”
“What that homicide showed us is that we have a ton of resources with our businesses in the form of surveillance cameras,’' he said. “If you have a business in the 2000 block of Magnolia Avenue, we need you because we know that your surveillance footage captured something.”
Prior to this incident, there had been 118 homicides in Birmingham this year. The total as of now stands at 122. Of those, eight have been ruled justifiable and two involved people injured in previous years who died in 2024. In all of Jefferson County, there have been 154 homicides including the 122 in Birmingham.
Alabama lawmakers have considered legislation banning switches like the one said to have been used in this shooting. Rep. Phillip Ensler, D-Montgomery, is once again sponsoring the legislation that makes anyone caught with a Glock switch on a pistol subject to a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in state prison.
There have been at least two other quadruple homicides in Birmingham this year. On July 13, a drive-by shooting at an adult birthday party left four people dead and nine others injured. On Feb. 16, four men were killed in a drive-by shooting in the Smithfield neighborhood. No arrests have been made in the mass shooting shooting in July.
“These mass shootings have more to do with culture than they do criminality,’' Fitzgerald said. “Mayor Randall Woodfin said it best this week - we’re seeing far too many arguments being settled by bullets and I think speaks to exactly what our mayor recently said.”
Birmingham’s homicide total in 2023 dropped 6.25%. It was the first time in five years the number of killings in the city had dropped after years of steady increases. The city ended 2023 with 135 homicides and 2022 with 144 homicides -- making it the deadliest year in recent Birmingham history. Birmingham’s all-time record for homicides was in 1933 with 148 slayings.
Fitzgerald thanked the fire department and staff at UAB Hospital for their work in treating those shot Saturday night.
“This speaks to what they go through,’’ he said. “Often the focus is on us as officers but rarely do we get the chance to publicly thank Birmingham Fire and Rescue and UAB Hospital for the amazing work they do and the stress and trauma this causes.”
Anyone with additional information is asked to call investigators at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
