Man, woman and child found shot in car near Birmingham park

A small child was among the three people killed in a shooting near a Birmingham park on Saturday.

The shots were fired shortly before 5:30 p.m. in the 1700 block of Indian Summer Drive in the city’s east side.

The shooting occurred in or near the entrance to Echo Highlands Park in the Echo Highlands neighborhood, off Winewood Road.

Officer Truman Fitzgerald said police initially received a 911 call about an accident. When officers arrived at the scene, they found a sedan parked in front of a house next to the park.

Apparently the car had jumped a curb and come to a stop in front of the house. Police said the car was riddled with bullet holes.

The officers found a man, a woman and a school-age child in the vehicle. They were a mother with her son and the mother’s boyfriend.

All three were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.

According to police, the little boy was apparently no older than 7 or 8 years old.

“We believe there was some sort of interaction between the occupants of the victims’ vehicle and the suspects’ vehicle,” Fitzgerald said.

Witnesses told police they believed the shooter or shooters fled in another vehicle. Most of the shell casings were found in the park’s parking lot.

Visibly distraught family members rushed to the scene of the accident.

“Every time a murder happens, it affects us,” Fitzgerald said. “But when you have a child, it affects you differently.”

“This case involves a young school-age child who was caught up in the violence in our city,” he said. “We have to ask ourselves, ‘When is enough enough?'”

“We need to get to the bottom of this immediately,” he said.

The victims are the 83rd, 84th and 85th murders in the city this year. Eight of these murders were judged to be justified and are therefore not considered criminal.

There were 108 murders across Jefferson County, including 85 in Birmingham.

The police said they were dependent on the public’s help.

“There’s only one way in and one way out,” Fitzgerald said. “Someone saw something, someone heard something.”

Anyone with information is asked to call the Homicide Unit at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.