Following a recent fatal shooting in Birmingham the city has now tied its all-time high record for homicides in a single year- with 17 days still left in 2024.
Shortly before 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, 48-year-old Randolph Taylor Jr. was shot and killed at the West End Walking Trail on Cotton Avenue following a fight with an unidentified man, AL.com reported . The suspect then fled the scene.
”During that physical altercation, the suspect shot the victim and then fled on foot,’’ S.W. Officer Truman Fitzgerald said. The shooting makes Taylor the 148th person to die in a homicide in Birmingham in 2024- tying the all-time high record set in 1933 for homicides in a single year.
“Like we said on homicide No. 1, that was already one too many,’’ Fitzgerald said. “What hurts the most is around the holiday season is when our families feel the effects the most,’’ he said. “Right now, our No. 1 goal is solving these homicides, getting these people off the streets because as we’ve said before, many of these suspects go on to commit other homicides.”