Birmingham homicides up 15% six months into 2024: ‘It’s just destroying family after family’

Homicides in Birmingham and all of Jefferson County rose in the first six months of 2024 compared to the same time last year.

There were 75 homicides in Birmingham from January through June, up 10 slayings compared to the same time in 2023. That’s a more than 15% increase.

The city reported its first homicide of July -- the 76th of the year -- Monday night when a man was shot in an East Lake parking lot near where people were shooting dice. The victim was identified as 30-year-old Kameron Connell.

Of the 75 in the first half of this year, eight have been ruled justifiable and aren’t deemed criminal. Birmingham police do not count justified homicides in their numbers, and also do not include a fatal officer-involved shooting that happened one week ago.

In all of Jefferson County, there have been 98 killings as of July 1, 2024. That is an increase of two homicides over this time last year.

Countywide, homicides have taken place in Fairfield, Bessemer, Hueytown, Lipscomb, Midfield, Adamsville and unincorporated Jefferson County.

Birmingham’s homicide tally in 2023 dropped for the first time in five years after years of steady increases brought the deadly toll to a historic high.

The city ended 2023 with 135 homicides, a 6.25% decrease from 2022 when the city had 144 homicides, marking the deadliest year in recent Birmingham history.

The 2022 homicide total surpassed the highest number recorded in recent memory -- 141 in 1991. Birmingham’s all-time record for homicides was in 1933 with 148 slayings.

The news of Birmingham’s homicide spike comes as many cities across the United States have reported a decrease in violent crimes.

The FBI’s Quarterly Uniform Crime Report released in June showed a 26.4% decrease in murders nationally, according to Stateline. The data, which covers reported crimes from January to March, is collected from nearly 12,000 law enforcement agencies representing about 77% of the country’s population.

Aside from homicide, crime is down fairly significantly in Birmingham thus far in 2024, Police Chief Scott Thurmond said Monday. “It’s not double digits but it’s close.”

“Homicide is the one thing that everybody sees and has the greatest impact on our community and destroys families and that’s the worst of all of our crimes,’’ Thurmond said. “It’s just destroying family after family.”

The city saw six homicides in January, 12 in February, 15 in March, 11 in April, 13 in May and 16 in June.

“February really hurt us this year,’’ Thurmond said.

Smithfield Shooting Feb. 16, 2024 — A drive-by shooting in Birmingham's Smithfield community left four men dead on Friday, Feb. 16, 2024.(Carol Robinson)

In February of 2023, the city recorded only two homicides compared to the 12 in 2024, which included six homicides in one day.

On Feb. 16, four men were killed in a drive-by shooting in Smithfield, and a missing Birmingham couple was found dead on the city’s west side.

In Birmingham, the vast majority of the homicides are acquaintance-based.

“Not all of them, but a lot of them are,’’ Thurmond said. “It’s hard for us to intervene or get ahead of the situation when people who know each other and get into an altercation and someone pulls a gun and shoots the other person.”

“It’s that conflict resolution that’s not taking place,’’ the chief said.

Police leaders and investigators study each homicide in the city within days of the killing.

“We have our violent crime briefing where we see where we are in the case, look at what, if anything, could have been done to prevent it, and see what we need that could help solve it,’’ Thurmond said. “We try to make sure our detectives have all the tools they need to solve the case.”

Thurmond said the lack of community engagement remains an issue.

“The community is not giving us information we need to solve these cases,’’ he said.

In cases where the residents come forward with information, there is often a quick resolution.

“We’ve had a couple of good ones this year, high profile cases where we got information and we acted very quickly and we made an arrest,’’ Thurmond said.

One of those was the horrific kidnapping, torture, and murder of Mahogany Jackson, also in February. Investigators received crucial tips in that case, and police charged eight people in the case.

“When we get information,’’ he said, “we act swiftly to bring those responsible before the judge and the jury.”

Violent crime often heats up as the temperatures rise and continues into the holiday season which Thurmond agreed is concerning giving the increase already seen this year.

“We’ve had different things we’ve put in place, like Operation Knight Rider,’’ he said.

The operation targeting exhibition driving and street racing was launched in April and is ongoing.

“It’s also had an impact on our violent crime as well, looking at the arrest we’ve made and the guns we’ve taken off the street,’’ he said. “There’s a lot of background investigation that occurs with Knight Rider and it’s leading to other investigations.”

Operation Summer Heat is also underway. It consists of traffic safety checkpoints every day throughout the city.

“Those locations are determined by the precinct commanders where they’re needing increased presence and activity,’’ Thurmond said. “They’re trying to get ahead of crime and deploy officers where they need to be.”

Other than homicides, Thurmond said overall crime in the city is down significantly.

The FBI report released last month showed that violent crime nationwide dropped considerably with a 15 percent drop in overall, including a 13 percent drop in aggravated assault. Serious violent crime like murder and rape both decreased by about 26 percent.

Through March 4 in Birmingham, statists showed double-digit decreases in the crime categories of rape, robbery, aggravated assaults, and theft. There were increases in homicide, burglary and auto theft.

A ransomware attack on the City of Birmingham March 5 shut down the computer systems and many of the services have not yet been restored. That’s why the latest statists posted on the department’s website are from March 4.

Statistics are still be compiled and reviewed by police officials, but all reports since the cyberattack have been done by hand, not computer. Thurmond said they hope to have the systems up and running in several more weeks.