BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A pre-dawn barrage of gunfire ripped through Birmingham’s Bush Hills neighborhood Tuesday, leaving one man dead, another gravely wounded and adding yet another killing to a city already struggling with one of the highest homicide rates in the nation. Police and Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service were called at 5:57 a.m. to the 1600 block of Fifth Avenue West after the city’s ShotSpotter system and multiple 911 callers reported what investigators later said was roughly 20 rounds fired. Officers found two men inside a vehicle; one was pronounced dead at the scene and the other was rushed to UAB Hospital for surgery. No arrests had been announced as of Wednesday morning, and detectives are treating the case as a homicide.
The car, riddled with bullets, sat in the quiet residential stretch of Bush Hills as detectives marked shell casings and canvassed for security camera footage. Police have not publicly identified the victims or released a possible motive, and they are asking anyone with information to contact Birmingham police or Crime Stoppers.
Tuesday’s killing is at least the second time in less than two years that Bush Hills has drawn homicide detectives after reports of a hail of gunfire in the historically middle-class west Birmingham community. In a 2024 Bush Hills case, ShotSpotter also registered upward of 20 rounds, underscoring what residents describe as bursts of sudden, chaotic violence interrupting otherwise quiet blocks.
The Bush Hills slaying is listed as Birmingham’s 80th homicide of 2025, a grim mid-December benchmark that comes on the heels of a record-setting year of violence. In 2024, the city recorded roughly 149 to 160 homicides, depending on how justifiable deaths are counted, for a rate estimated between about 76 and 82 killings per 100,000 residents — more than 12 times the most recently reported national average of about 6.3.
The Bush Hills killing unfolds in a state that already ranks near the top nationally for deadly violence. Alabama’s murder rate is estimated at about 10.3 per 100,000 residents, roughly 80 percent higher than the national average and third-highest among all states, driven largely by gun homicides.
On a per-capita basis, Birmingham’s homicide rate places it among the most violent mid-sized cities in the country, even in years when total killings fall. Recent analyses show violent crime in Birmingham running more than three to four times the national average, with homicide rates vastly higher than many cities of similar size.
While some larger cities have seen sharp drops in homicide since the pandemic-era spike, Birmingham’s improvement has been uneven, with 2024 marking a new modern high even as early 2025 numbers suggested a midyear decline before the tally climbed to 80 by Dec. 9. Local and national researchers say that puts added pressure on city leaders, police and neighborhood groups to sustain any gains and avoid backsliding into the record-setting violence of the past two years.