Alabama's capital is facing a surge in murders, after a man was found fatally shot behind a church in Birmingham-- marking the city's sixth homicide in a week, according to a report Tuesday.
The unidentified victim apparently took off running after being struck by a hail of bullets about a block away, then collapsed behind the Tabernacle Baptist Church near Legion Field Stadium, al.com said, citing a police spokesperson.
Authorities were reportedly alerted to the incident when a ShotSpotter device registered 13 rounds fired in the area. No arrests have been made, according to al.com.
The killing was the Alabama capital's sixth since April 9, when UPS driver Anthony Lamar Love, 44, was shot during a targeted attack as he walked to his car in a company parking lot after finishing work.
The string of slayings also includes Thursday's fatal kidnapping of Nakita Chantryce Davidson, a 40-year-old mother of four.
Her body was found the following day, stuffed in the truck of her SUV after it was abandoned in a wooded area in southwestern Birmingham.
Ex-boyfriend Cedric Dewayne Robertson, 37, is charged with capital murder for allegedly shooting Davidson and abducting her from the scene of a two-vehicle collision near the entrance to the city's Elmwood Cemetery.
The spate of deadly violence pushed the number of killings in Birmingham this year to 41, although four were deemed to have been justified.
In December, the MoneyGeek website reported that the individualized "societal cost" of violent crime in Birmingham was the nation's highest, at $11,392 per resident.
MoneyGeek said its findings were based on 2022 crime statistics compiled by the FBI and a 2010 study, "The Cost of Crime to Society: New Crime-Specific Estimates for Policy and Program Evaluation," posted online by the National Library of Medicine.
