The mother of one of two teens gunned down in an east Birmingham neighborhood said she doesn’t understand why so much violence is happening, but she wants it to stop.
Ivey Carter Wilson III and Kendall Lee Shack, 18-year-old best friends for much of their young lives, died just feet from each other on Tucker Avenue Sunday night. “When you saw Kendall, you saw Ivey,’’ said Wilson’s mother, Monica Harris. “They grew up together.”
East Precinct officers responded to the 200 block of Tucker Avenue about 5:20 p.m. Sunday on a report of shots fired and a person down. When they arrived on the scene, said Sgt. Johnny Williams, they found two victims unresponsive in the street. They were pronounced dead on the scene.
Police have not yet released any additional information on the slayings and no arrests have been announced.
The teens had previously attended Carver High School but were no longer enrolled. Both were taking part in Job Corps, a U.S. Department of Labor program that offers free-of-charge education and vocational training to young men and women ages 16 to 24. Harris was working in Norwood.
“He had done a 360 in his life,’’ Harris said of her son. “They loved him there.”
Harris said her son on Sunday night had walked to the neighborhood store to buy some snacks. When he didn’t return home, his girlfriend went in search for him and that’s when she saw the police lights and crime scene tape. She called Harris who, along with Shack’s mother, both rushed to the scene.
They had to wait a couple of hours before detectives took them inside the crime scene to officially identify their son’s via photos taken at the scene.
Sharon F. Giddens said she knew Shack and his mother from church and described him as a “very nice man” who always helped others. She said the teens were preparing to return to Job Corp on Sunday night when the shooting happened.
Around 8:15 p.m., Monday, about a dozen community leaders lit candles outside the Brownsville Heights Community Center to remember Wilson and Shack.
Harris said she still doesn’t know why the teens were killed. Police have told her they have leads in the investigation, but don’t want to comprise the probe by releasing too much information.
While trying to make sense of his death, the single mother of five is also trying to figure out how to bury her son. “We’re just trying to make it,’’ Harris said.
A GoFundMe has been started to help with funeral costs. “Our beloved was robbed of his life and ripped from loved ones that are deeply saddened by the events of gun violence over the weekend,’’ family wrote on the GoFundMe. “We understand financial situations are tight, so we appreciate any donations whole heartedly. It’s always hard to prepare for the ultimately demise of our loved ones and hopefully we can reach our goal to put our Ivey away with the dignity he deserves.”
Wilson was one of four people killed in Birmingham over the weekend. A fifth man was killed in unincorporated Jefferson County. “Kids are getting killed and it’s just ridiculous,’’ Harris said. “I don’t understand it, but I want it to stop.”
“Ivey was just trying to begin his life,’’ she said, “and it was cut short.”
Donations to the GoFundMe can be made here. Anyone with information in the double slaying is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.