Birmingham Breaks 1933 Homicide Record With City’s 149th Violent Death of 2024

A shooting death in Birmingham’s Titusville community set a tragic new record for the city as police investigated the 149th homicide of the year — breaking the city’s 91-year-old homicide record.

The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office on Thursday identified the victim as Reginald Crenshaw. He was 69 and lived in Birmingham.

Police were called to 224 3rd Ave. S. at about 7:34 p.m. Wednesday. They arrived to find a man dead in the front yard of a vacant house.

With 13 days left in 2024, the shooting broke the city’s all-time high record for homicides, set in 1933.

“It’s important for us as a department to remember there’s a name, and a face, and a family connected to each homicide that we respond to,’’ said Officer Truman Fitzgerald.

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The deadly record comes as Birmingham’s population has suffered years of decline and as police this year have been called to investigate multiple mass shootings and three quadruple homicides.

The city’s population today is a little under 197,000 people, giving the city a murder rate of 7.5 homicides per 10,000 people.

In 1933, Birmingham had roughly 259,000 people, giving the city a murder rate of 5.7 homicides for every 10,000 people.

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The new record comes after 2023 saw a break in a years-long trend of a growing number of homicides in Birmingham

The city ended 2023 with 135 homicides, a 6.25% drop over 2022, which had 144 homicides.

Birmingham’s 2022 homicide total surpassed that of the deadliest year in recent city history — 141 in 1991.

Birmingham ended 2021 with 132 homicides; 2020 with 122 homicides; 2019 with 106 homicides; and 2018 with 107 homicides.

Of the 149 homicides in 2024, 11 have been ruled justifiable and therefore aren’t deemed criminal. One of the homicides was an officer-involved shooting, and two others were shootings that happened in previous years, but the victims died in 2024.

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