Eight minutes separated the two bursts of gunfire that turned the streets around Legion Field into a crime scene after the country’s largest HBCU football game.
Birmingham, Ala., police have charged a 17-year-old with murder and possession of a machine gun conversion device in the shootings that killed one man and wounded eight others outside the stadium on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, after this year’s Magic City Classic.
Officers responded shortly after 7:50 p.m. to the 400 block of Graymont Avenue West, a stretch near the stadium where vendors had set up along the street. They found nine gunshot victims. The circumstances of the shooting are not clear, and police said more than one suspect was involved.
Birmingham Police Chief Michael Pickett said most spectators and families had already left stadium property when the shots were fired. He called the gunfire a senseless act of violence and said he was "very grateful that more people weren’t injured.”
A Witness Saw a Victim Fall
Mayor Randall Woodfin laid out the sequence on Sunday, Nov. 1, saying the two shootings came eight minutes apart and both before 8 p.m. the night before. The first wounded six people outside the Legion Field perimeter and outside the Magic City Classic tailgate area, he said.
Less than eight minutes later, gunfire across the street from the stadium, in the Graymont Avenue area, left three victims. A witness saw one of those victims fall.
Police said Sunday that one surviving victim remained in critical condition and the other seven were stable. The surviving victims range in age from 19 to 30.
De’Rell Freeman, a Birmingham police spokesperson, said officers detained one person and drove that person to police headquarters for questioning. Officers recovered and secured multiple firearms at the scene, then shut down the remaining tailgating in the area for the night. No officers or first responders were hurt.
A Parker Graduate, Dead on Graymont
The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office said Monday, Nov. 2, that the man killed was Dre’Shawn Te’Verious Thomas, 19, of Birmingham. He was pronounced dead at the scene on Graymont Avenue and was one of the nine people shot that night.
Thomas graduated from A.H. Parker High School this year. “Birmingham City Schools is deeply saddened by the passing of Dre’Shawn Thomas, a 2026 graduate of A.H. Parker High School,” the district said in a statement.
Woodfin said the shootings were unrelated to the game and that the city will keep supporting the event. The Magic City Classic, the largest historically Black college and university football game in the country, brings Alabama A&M and Alabama State together every year and drew about 70,000 fans. Alabama A&M won, 31-28.
The investigation is continuing. Investigators asked anyone with information or video of either shooting to come forward, and they gave two numbers: the Birmingham Police Department at 205-254-1764 and Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
The Lounge Closed, the Case Stayed Open
In a separate case, a mass shooting outside Hush Lounge in the Five Points South district of Birmingham on Sept. 21, 2024, killed four people and injured 17 others, with 21 people shot that night. Gunfire broke out about 11 p.m., and more than 100 shots were fired. Many of the victims had attended an alumni picnic before heading to the entertainment district. Birmingham Police identified no suspects at first and called in the FBI and ATF, then announced arrests three and a half weeks later, charging Damien McDaniel, NyQuan Lollar and Crishawn McLemore-Bruce in connection with the shooting. District Attorney Danny Carr told ABC 33/40’s I-Team in 2025 that the investigation was still ongoing. Hush Lounge, which was not responsible for the violence outside its doors, closed down in December 2024. Birmingham Police increased patrols in the district and have worked with business owners on safety measures.
