Birmingham man charged with killing pregnant ex-girlfriend’s 15-year-old daughter, injuring brother

A Birmingham man has been charged in the killing of his ex-girlfriend’s 15-year-old daughter, and the wounding of her younger brother.

Lee Otis Montgomery III, 27, is charged with capital murder in the Thursday shooting death of Cornelia Rose Lathan. He is also charged with aggravated assault/attempted murder, and discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling.

Montgomery was booked into the Jefferson County Jail at 3:04 p.m. Friday and is being held without bond. The warrants against him were obtained Friday morning.

The deadly shooting happened shortly before 12:30 p.m. Wednesday in the 500 block of 25th Street North at Park Place apartments.

Officers were called to the apartment earlier Wednesday, Chief Scott Thurmond confirmed. They responded to a domestic disturbance, which was verbal not physical.

Thurmond said there have been previous domestic calls at the apartment.

Hours later, sometime before 12:30 p.m., police said the ex-boyfriend of the woman who lived in the apartment returned. He stood in the parking lot and opened fire.

Witnesses said they heard three to four shots and then saw the suspect running away.

Cornelia was pronounced dead on the scene at 12:25 p.m.

Her 5-year-old brother was shot in the leg and transported to Children’s of Alabama. His injuries aren’t life-threatening.

The children’s mother, who is pregnant, was later transported by Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service to an area hospital for observation.

Lee Otis Montgomery III — Birmingham police arrest a 27-year-old man after a domestic shooting that left a 15-year-old girl dead and her 5-year-old brother injured.(Contributed)

Montgomery was quickly taken into custody after a short manhunt in Woodlawn. He was arrested in the 6000 block of First Avenue North.

The chief praised the swift arrest of the suspect.

“This shows when the Birmingham Police Department gets information and can act on it, how quickly we get people off the streets and in custody to make our city safer,’’ he said. “There’s a lot of men and women who worked hard today to get this individual off the streets of Birmingham and I’m extremely proud of them and I can’t thank them enough for their sacrifice and their hard work every day.”

Court records show Montgomery was arrested last year on a charge of third-degree domestic violence involving the same woman. Charging documents state he punched the victim in the side of the head and the shoulder with a closed fist.

That charge was later dismissed for “want of prosecution.”

Thurmond called the fatal shooting “heinous.”

“We have kids out of school, trying to enjoy the summer and we’ve got someone so angry they believe they have to take violence into their hands and shoot into an apartment.”

“We continue to see these things in our city over and over again,’’ Thurmond continued. “It’s people who know each other and it’s just really sad to see these continue.”

Cornelia is Birmingham’s 70th homicide this year. Of those, seven have been ruled justifiable and therefore aren’t deemed criminal.

In all of Jefferson County, there have been 93 homicides including the 70 in Birmingham.