A young Birmingham man was gunned down in broad daylight on a busy roadway Monday outside of the AutoZone on Huffman Road.
The victim's father identified him as Chancey Harper Jr., 20. Other family members, including Harper's mother, were among the more than 100 people gathered at the emotionally-charged crime scene. At least one fight broke out hours after that killing.
The victim's father described his son as "a good kid," and said he was at work when he got the call about the fatal shooting. He rushed to the scene, where his son was dead on the asphalt, his body covered by a yellow tarp and blue towel or shirt placed over his face by officers.
"Somebody out here showed me pictures of my son's body on Facebook,'' said Chancey Harper Sr. "They do that now. They don't value life anymore."
Birmingham police spokesman said an officer working an extra job in a nearby shopping center heard gunfire and notified the dispatcher over the police radio at 3:52 p.m. The officer was heard on the radio yelling, "Shots fired. Shots fired."
The shooting happened in the 700 block of Huffman Road, not far from Huffman High School which had just let out for the day when the gunfire erupted. One witness, who didn't want her name used, said she was driving along Huffman Road when she heard the gunfire. She pulled her truck into the parking lot, and saw multiple young men running from the scene. The victim collapsed face down on the pavement. "I hollered for someone to call an ambulance," she said. "I tried."
Edwards said the Auto Zone parking lot, and the parking lots of other nearby businesses, are often packed most days with students leaving the school. "There were a lot of kids in the parking lot,'' Edwards said. "The officer, as he began to walk through the crowd, he noticed there was a young black male suffering from a gunshot wound in the parking lot."
"The officer said there were a lot of kids running past him, and running the other way,'' he said. "There were a lot of people out here."
Edwards said police believe the shooting happened behind AutoZone, and that victim then ran and collapsed in the front parking lot.
Harper was not a current student at Huffman High School, and Edwards said police don't believe any of those involved are students. Detectives, as well as the department's Neighborhood Enforcement Team, were canvassing the area for clues and evidence.
"Our investigators have a tedious job of trying to find someone to communicate what happened,'' Edwards said. "One of the challenges in a large crowd like this is trying to get people to talk to you and tell you what they saw, what happened. We're trying to piece that together now. They do have some people they are talking to giving us very detailed information, which is great."
Asked to address the brazenness of the daylight shooting, Edwards said, "It just shows the recklessness of the shooter, no care for life,'' he said. "Obviously whatever took place, whatever led that person to discharge a firearm recklessly like he did with a lot of students, a lot of people walking around, it just points to what type of individual we're dealing with, the individual we're looking for."
Birmingham City Councilwoman Lashunda Scales was at the homicide scene. "Today is obviously not one of those times we're most proud of our community,'' she said. "Anyone who knows this person, or this family, you've got to speak up. This is not the time where you take the initiative to be quiet. This is not the time to retaliate, but to come together."
Scales emphasized that the shooting was not believed to be tied to the nearby high school in anyway. "We want parents to feel comfortable bringing the students there tomorrow,'' she said. "There are already plans in place to make sure all of the entrance and exit points will be carefully managed."
"While it's a sad day, what I'm hoping will come from this is that we get more serous about our community,'' Scales said. "We talk about Black Lives Matter. Today, it really matters and we want to make sure that anyone who knows anything about this victim and what has occurred, that you step up and speak out. "
"If you care anything about your community, put yourself in that person's place, that family's place,'' she said. "Wouldn't you want someone to speak out for you? And the answer is yes."
Harper is Birmingham's 65th homicide victim this year. Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham police at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.