A man was shot while in his vehicle Thursday night in downtown Birmingham at a scene visited by the city’s mayor, interim police chief and Jefferson County District Attorney.
Around 6:30 p.m. Monday, North Precinct officers received calls of multiple shots fired in and around the 2300 block of First Avenue North, Officer Truman Fitzgerald said.
Officers arrived at the scene when they were flagged down by members of the community who alerted them to a person with a gunshot wound who had pulled into a nearby business.
Officers entered the business — which Fitzgerald declined to name so as not to expose the business owner to potential danger — to find a man suffering from an apparent gunshot wound.
Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service personnel arrived and transported him to UAB Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Fitzgerald said officers hope to speak with the victim, who is in surgery.
“Right now, our detectives are reviewing surveillance footage from the nearby business to see what happened leading up to this shooting.”
Police are not sure if the victim was targeted.
“We are exploring different motives in this shooting,” Fitzgerald said. “However, we do not have a confirmed motive.”
Police believe the suspect was on foot when the man was shot inside his vehicle, which crashed at the corner of First Avenue North and 23rd Street North.
No suspects were in custody as of 9 p.m. Thursday, but since the shooting happened in a heavily populated commercial area, “those surveillance cameras are going to be vital to this investigation,” Fitzgerald said.
Interim Birmingham Police Chief Michael Pickett, Mayor Randall Woodfin and Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr stopped by the scene but did not speak to reporters.
“Right where this happened,” Fitzgerald said when asked about the appearance of public officials at the scene.
“Anytime you have something going on in a downtown area, that’s your infrastructure in your city. And I think it just shows where we are. We need as a city, as a police department to protect our infrastructure, which will always be your downtown.”
The officers’ presence showed that crime in the area “will not be tolerated,” Fitzgerald said.
“That’s why you saw the mayor outside, that’s why you saw the chief of police. Because if we don’t send a message that this won’t happen in our infrastructure, what will send a message to the delineation areas,” said the officer.
“If we can’t make these individuals understand that you’re not going to come into our infrastructure and get away with it, that will send a message that they can go anywhere in our city and do whatever they want .”
Fitzgerald commended the business owners who helped the victim.
“It speaks to the real people of Birmingham that you have business owners who have rendered aid to a gunshot victim putting themselves in harm’s way to render aid,” he said.
Shelly Robinette and her friend, Susan Brunner, live in the area and were having drinks at Pogo’s across the street when the shots rang out.
They counted about seven shots.
“People just froze at that point,” Robinette recalled, “and we looked at each other trying to figure out ‘is that really what we heard?’
Moments later, the friends heard police sirens racing toward the scene.
Robinette said incidents like Thursday night’s shooting give her pause to frequent downtown bars, noting that she and her friends usually go out every Wednesday.
“I want to feel safe to walk out of my building and walk the block or two that it takes to go and see my friends and have fun, and everybody wants to be like that,” she said. . “We just want to be sure.”
Added Brunner: “It has to stop. It really has to stop.”
