Birmingham Began the Month with 5 Homicides in 5 Days – and it Got Worse

By Barnett Wright | The Birmingham Times After one of the most violent starts to a month in Birmingham in recent memory, Mayor Randall Woodfin this week began one of the most intense anti-violence messaging campaigns of his two terms in office. Across 24 hours on Saturday, a man, woman and 5-year-old child were killed in a triple homicide and four died in a mass shooting at a birthday party. Nearly a dozen more were injured in the shootings. Those came after five homicides in the first five days of July. After the shootings on Saturday the mayor met with law enforcement agencies that included the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms. They later gathered on Sunday for a press conference. The city will be more aggressive collaborating with federal law enforcement “to be extremely aggressive in going after” all crimes, the mayor said, “small things that turn to gun violence,” including credit card scams, auto thefts and gun trafficking. “What we’ve got to do is turn the heat up on everybody,” said Woodfin, first elected in 2017. On Monday, the mayor was on the Chris Coleman Radio Network (V94.9...