Brutal shooting leaves four dead, ten injured - and people wondering why the city isn't taking their complaints seriously

BIRMINGHAM, AL - Following an altercation at a nightclub on 27th Street North in Birmingham where a birthday party was underway, at least one gunman opened fire, striking at least fourteen people and killing four of them according to police.

In a video statement reported by NBC News, Birmingham police spokesman Truman Fitzgerald said that officers responded to a reported shooting in the street outside the club at 11:08 p.m. Officers responding to the scene found a man fatally shot on the sidewalk near the entrance, two women dead just inside the club, and one man wounded, who was transported to an area hospital and later pronounced dead.

Fitzgerald explained that investigators believe that the shooting took place from the street. In a separate incident at approximately 5:20 p.m., police responded to reports of a car accident, where they found a vehicle that appeared to have been shot into from the street.

Inside the vehicle, they found the bodies of a man, a woman, and a child as young as five, all of whom had suffered gunshot wounds. The spokesman added that investigators believe they were victims of a "targeted shooting," from a suspect who later fled in a vehicle.

At the nearby University of Alabama-Birmingham Hospital, ten other victims were treated according to the police department. Some arrived in private vehicles and others were transported by the Birmingham Fire Department. 
 

The Birmingham PD said in a statement, “At least one suspect drove by in a vehicle and fired shots from the street into the nightclub.”
 

Mass shooting at a night club in Birmingham, Alabama. A gunman fired into the building killing 4 people and injuring nine others.
2 women inside the nightclub and a man who was found on a sidewalk near the venue were pronounced dead at the scene. Another man died at a hospital.… pic.twitter.com/eNpKkpnlDY

— Stephen Mutoro (@smutoro) July 14, 2024

It was later reported that the venue which hosted the birthday party did not have appropriate licenses to hold such an event. In fact, there is little information regarding who actually leases the property, and no signs reveal a business, according to ABC 33/40 News. 

Local resident Jimmy Coleman is president of the North Birmingham Neighborhood Association, the president of the North Birmingham Community and the president of the CAB, an advisory board to the mayor and council. He told ABC, "Two years, we have beaten the walls about this. I’ve been before the council, I've been before the public safety committee. If the city listened to the neighborhood, we would not have had that problem."

Coleman added that the most recent complaint he made on the location was just five days prior to the shooting.

On Sunday, Alabama.com reported that Birmingham PD identified the victims of the nightclub shooting as Angela Weatherspoon, 56, of Center Point, Markeisha Gettings, 42, of Birmingham, Stevie McGhee, 39, of Birmingham, and Lerandus Anderson, 24, of Center Point.

Birmingham police Deputy Chief Rodarius Mauldin told the outlet, “It’s still a fluid situation." He added, "We’re unsure what led to the incident and whether someone was targeted."

The Deputy Chief said that detectives are hoping to gather more information from the surviving victims and witnesses. “We know there was a lot of people that saw and heard various things,’’ Mauldin said.

The Birmingham Police Department is asking that anyone with information related to the shooting call homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-7777.