Monday, September 23, 2024

Within seconds, Birmingham's bustling Five Points South turns into a scene of chaos and bloodshed as the scourge of mass gun violence spreads to a special place

The iconic fountain in Five Points South (AL.com)
 

Birmingham, Alabama, the city where I gave birth to this blog 17 years ago, was the site Saturday night of a mass shooting that left 17 people injured and four people dead. Law-enforcement authorities say the incident appears to be a "hit," perhaps a murder-for-hire. They believe the target of the shooters was among those killed. The shooting took place in the popular Five Points South entertainment district, which is filled with bars, nightclubs, restaurants, and music venues. Witnesses said the district was bustling with activity when shots rang out Saturday night. Soon, blood could be seen pooling on sidewalks, near street corners and crosswalks, and vehicles parked nearby.

Five Points South is located just a few steps from the campus of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), where I worked for roughly 25 years before being cheated out of my job for daring to write a blog about legal and political corruption in the area, most of it with roots in Shelby County, which is well outside the Birmingham city limits. 

What happened to me at UAB? I might never know the full story. But I do have evidence that at least two lawyers were displeased  about my reporting and were concerned it might interfere with the haul they hoped to rake in from participation in a lawsuit that evolved from the HealthSouth Corporation accounting scandal. Both of these lawyers have enough ties to UAB and state government to get me fired for no reason -- and if they did not actually push for the firing, they almost certainly know who did. 

The Hush Lounge (NY Times)
 

Why start a blog about corruption in the Birmingham area? Well, because of a difficult neighbor named Mike McGarity (with an extensive criminal record), who moved in next door and kept trying to make our real property (our yard) his own, my wife Carol and I wound up in court trying to protect what was legally ours and to keep someone from getting hurt on our property, which likely would have caused our homeowner's insurance to skyrocket. I wrote in 2012 that I saw signs McGarity might be dangerous, and he later proved me correct by committing  felony assault by hitting me in the back with a roadside sign. I refused to press charges because Shelby County deputies would not bring the case as a felony, which it clearly was under state law (see here and here).

Carol and I kept running headlong into judges who served up rulings that had nothing to do with the actual law. This started with state-court judges in Shelby County named Ron Jackson, J. Michael Joiner, and, Dan Reeves. The mainstream media largely ignored the activities of rogue judges, so I figured citizens would have no idea how their taxpayer dollars were being wasted if I didn't step forward and tell them. That is how Legal Schnauzer was born.

In 2012, a Chicago-based  company called Cision, which bills itself as "a leading global provider of media relations software services and research solutions for public relations professionals" named us among the top 50 independent law blogs in North America.

We were ranked No. 37, and since we were not affiliated with any law firm, law school, media company, publishing house, business enterprise, group-blogging effort, or professional association we were one of only two truly independent blogs  on the list.

The only other independent blog on the list appears to be Grits for Breakfast, which focuses on the Texas criminal justice system and came in at No. 3. It is the work of Scott Henson, who describes himself as "a former journalist turned opposition researcher/political consultant, public policy researcher and blogger."
Henson has been an associate editor at Texas Observer and has worked for the ACLU, the Sunshine Project for Police Accountability, and the Innocence Project of Texas. He has an impressive background, and if I am alone in his company on the Cision list . . . well, that seems like a pretty good place to be.

Let's return to the subject of UAB and the mass shooting that turned the usually joy-filled Five Points South into a deadly setting.

As for UAB, why would the highly regarded university -- the driving engine of Birmingham's economy -- fire a veteran employee who engaged in activity that clearly was protected by the First Amendment, and I did it on my own time, with my own resources? In fact, UAB could not even settle on any offense I committed, certainly not a fireable offense. In a  grievance hearing, my supervisor Pam Powell admitted she had no evidence to support her actions against me, and a UAB IT employee named Sean Maher, said he had been asked to monitor my computer use for 30 days and found I had never opened my blog at work, much less actually worked on it. No one else in our group was subjected to such surveillance, only me. Why would Powell and her cohorts repeatedly deal with my situation in violation of the UAB Employee Handbook?

UAB's public-relations spin machine was an embarrassment, tossing out claims that ran wildly contrary to the findings of their own grievance committee. Gary Mans and Dale Turnbough were the main perpetrators of this hatchet job designed to destroy my reputation. 

If you get cheated out of your job, can you count on a federal judge to provide justice? Oh, no. My UAB case helped bring me into the presence of four federal judges -- William Marsh Acker Jr., Abdul Kallon, David Proctor, and Virginia Emerson Hopkins. Acker now is deceased, and two of the other three no longer are active federal judges. Acker's actions in my case were particularly grotesque. He granted summary judgment to the university without giving me a chance to conduct any discovery, which is a gross violation of both procedural and case law. (See Snook v. Trust Company of Georgia, 859 F. 2d 865 (11th Cir., 1988).) He told me in open court that he was going to cheat me repeatedly by abusing the process for a writ of mandamus, which is a form of interlocutory appeal. 

Despite periods of unpleasantness, I still hold many fond memories of UAB. And most anyone who has spent time in Birmingham, has been to Five Points South-- and it's hard not to enjoy the place, partly because of its eclectic mix of establishments -- from The Original Pancake House to Golden Temple Natural Grocery and Cafe to the now-defunct (but never forgotten) Charlemagne Records.

So, what exactly happened Saturday night in Five Points South? The chaotic nature of the incident, and the lack of time that has passed, make it difficult to piece together the facts. But here is one of the best accounts we've seen, from Carol Robinson, veteran crime reporter for Al.com (formerly The Birmingham News), plus Ruth Serven Smith, and Hannah Denham: 

Local and federal agents are searching for people with information about a deadly mass shooting that left four people dead and at least 17 others injured outside a Birmingham club Saturday night.

The shooting happened just after 11 p.m. in the 2000 block of Magnolia Avenue South, as people were standing in line to get into Hush, a hookah and cigar lounge.

Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond said the shooting may have been a murder-for-hire and that more than 100 shell casings were collected at the scene.

Here’s what we know so far about the deadly shooting. This story will be updated as more information is available.

How can people help?

Police and Mayor Randall Woodfin are urging anyone with  information to speak with officers. Businesses in the area are being urged to share surveillance video.

You can submit information to police here. You can also call investigators at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.

Who was killed?

Sunday evening, police identified three of the four people killed as Antria Holloman, 21, Tahj Booker, 27, and Carlos McCain, 27. A fourth person died at the hospital.

Who was injured?

Police estimate that 17 people were hurt in the shooting and ensuing chaos.

Gabriel Eslami, 24, of Trussville, was among the many injured.

“It’s just gun smoke and peoples’ bodies laid out on the pavement,’’ he said. “Physically, it’s hard to walk, but by the Grace of God, it didn’t hit anything major.” 



Flowers mark the shooting scene (WVTM)


 

University of Alabama at Birmingham spokesperson Alicia Rohan said on Sunday evening that UAB Hospital has treated 12 victims, total.

“This included one deceased victim brought to UAB Hospital from the scene, per the Birmingham Police Department,” she said. “We are currently treating 4 victims with conditions ranging from good to critical.”

How did the shooting occur?

Multiple shooters pulled up in a car, Thurmond said, got out and fired shots and then drove away.

The targeted victim in the murder-for-hire was likely found at the scene by the shooters. “Wherever that (targeted) person was is where it was going to take place,” Thurmond said.

Who are suspects in the shooting?

As of Sunday morning, police have not identified the suspects or people of interest.

A related shooting?

On Sunday night, three people were shot in the South East Lake community, specifically the 700 block of 81st Place South. A man injured in that shooting died.

“One of our personnel received intel that this may be related (to the Five Points South shootings),’’ said Officer Truman Fitzgerald. “So anytime we have a community member willing to step up and give information, we’re going to investigate that the best we can.”

Was the Hush Lounge involved?

Ryan Pryor, who opened Hush in 2019 and retired after 20 years as a Birmingham police officer in March, was at his club when shots rang out.

“I would like to stress that this had nothing to do with Hush itself. My heart goes out to the families, and I stand with Birmingham on correcting this violence. This gun violence has to stop,” Pryor said.

On Sunday morning, Pryor was preparing to reopen the business.“We need to try to get back to some kind of normalcy,” he said.

Hush, at 2012 Magnolia Ave., is a speakeasy-style lounge located in the underground space at Pickwick Place retail center. The club often features bottle service, parties, DJs and recently celebrated its fifth-year anniversary in June.

What are officials saying?

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin asked Sunday morning for help from state officials to regulate conversion devices that turn guns into automatic weapons.

“Converting a semi-automatic weapon into a fully automatic weapon that discharges all bullets within seconds doesn’t belong on our domestic streets,” Woodfin said in a Facebook post Sunday morning. “This shouldn’t be up for debate. This morning, too many families have to pick up the pieces of an unfair new normal that doesn’t include their love one.”

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