Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
A shootout between an auto repair shop worker and a suspected robber left one of them dead Saturday morning.
Birmingham police Saturday afternoon identified the slain man as Josiah Bryant. He was 22 and lived in Birmingham.
The shooting happened at 7:45 a.m. at Hatcher’s Auto Transmission Center on Tuscaloosa Avenue.
Officer Truman Fitzgerald said a store associate was opening the shop for business when an armed man entered and tried to rob him. “They engaged in a shootout,’' Fitzgerald said.
Bryant was shot. Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service pronounced him dead on the scene. Police recovered a handgun from near the deceased male.
The store associate remained on the scene and is fully cooperating with police, Fitzgerald said.
Court records indicate Bryant pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery in 2018, and received a 20-year sentence with four years to serve.
He was brought up on probation revocation charges earlier this year. In April, a judge did not revoke his probation but extended it through 2024.
The deadly shooting is Birmingham’s 58th homicide in 2021. Of those, four have been ruled justifiable and therefore aren’t deemed criminal.
In all of Jefferson County, there have been 105 homicides, including the 58 in Birmingham.