Police-Involved Shootings: Violent Night In Birmingham Metro

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Three separate shootings in the Birmingham metro involving police officers occurred Wednesday night, with two in the Birmingham city limits and one in Gardendale.

The first incident occurred after a robbery in north Birmingham.Police pursued the robbery suspect and exchanged gunfire with him. Several shots were fired, according to reports, with one Birmingham police officer shot three times. The suspect was shot and killed by police.

Another officer fell while pursuing the suspect and sustained serious injuries. He and the officer who was shot were taken to UAB Hospital and are expected to recover.

Not long after that shooting, gunfire erupted in the Southtown housing projects off University Boulevard. In that instance, an officer was patrolling near the Southtown Court public housing community on the 2300 block of 9th Avenue South around 10 p.m. when he saw gunfire being exchanged between two groups, according to an Alabama Media Group report.

The officer did return fire, according to police reports, and one person was reported shot. Police have not confirmed if the person shot was struck by a police officer's bullet.

Meanwhile, in Gardendale, just after 11 p.m., a police officer went to the First Baptist Church parking lot to investigate a report of a suspicious vehicle.

When the officer arrived, there were four people standing outside the vehicle, one of them armed with a gun. The man holding the gun reportedly jumped into a vehicle and then tried to run over the officer. The officer fired shots at the fleeing vehicle, according to an Alabama Media Group report.

A short distance away, on Mt. Olive Road at Mountain Crest Parkway, the suspect’s vehicle crashed off the roadway. The suspect was found wounded, and taken to UAB Hospital’s Trauma Center. The extent of his injuries is unknown. The officer was not injured.