Two shootings near Birmingham’s Magic City Classic on Saturday night left one person dead and at least eight injured, according to police. The first shooting injured six people outside the Legion Field perimeter and tailgate area, and a second shooting less than eight minutes later near Graymont Avenue injured three more. Seven victims between the ages of 19 and 30 were hospitalized, two in critical condition.
A 17-year-old armed with a gun is in custody, and police recovered multiple firearms from the scene. More than 50 people were treated for minor injuries caused by the chaos of the crowd scattering. Birmingham Police Chief Michael Pickett called the violence senseless and praised officers who ran toward the gunfire, saying more arrests are possible as the investigation continues.
The Magic City Classic is the largest HBCU football game in the United States, a major cultural and economic event for Birmingham’s Black community, which makes the tragedy especially painful. Here on the Suncoast, where our own events from spring training to festival weekends rely on crowds feeling safe, the questions being raised about event security and youth gun access matter to all of us. What do you think keeps a big community event safe?
