BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A Pleasant Grove High School senior was killed and a classmate wounded in a Saturday night shooting that underscored lingering gun violence in Birmingham even as the city begins a new year with sharply reduced homicide numbers.
Birmingham police said officers were called about 10:47 p.m. Jan. 10 to reports of two people shot in the 1600 block of Tuscaloosa Avenue Southwest, where they found a vehicle that had crashed into a tree in the front yard of a home. Inside, they discovered 18-year-old Brandon McNeal Campbell, of Pleasant Grove, unresponsive in the driver’s seat and a juvenile male who had also been struck by gunfire.
Both teens were taken to a local hospital, where Campbell was pronounced dead despite life-saving efforts; the younger victim, also a Pleasant Grove High School student, remained hospitalized Sunday. Jefferson County Schools officials said both victims are seniors at Pleasant Grove High, and district crisis counselors will be on campus Monday to support students and staff.
Investigators said preliminary evidence indicates the teens were inside the vehicle and had arranged to meet an unknown person in the 1600 block of Woodland Avenue Southwest, a short distance from where the car ultimately crashed. During that encounter, an unidentified suspect fired multiple rounds into the vehicle, and Campbell drove away before losing control and hitting the tree on Tuscaloosa Avenue, police said.
No arrests had been announced as of Sunday, and police asked anyone with information to call the Birmingham Police Department Homicide Unit at 205-254-1764 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. The killing marks one of the first homicide investigations of 2026 in Birmingham, which ended 2025 with 88 homicides citywide — the first time in a decade the annual toll fell below 100, even as families in neighborhoods like west Birmingham continue to absorb the trauma of deadly shootings.