By james art BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBMA) – Police in Birmingham are investigating after two people were found dead and burned in a car.
Officer Truman Fitzgerald, assistant public information officer for the Birmingham Police Department, says the two were found in the 1600 block of North 89th Place.
Birmingham Fire and Rescue crews responded after someone called 911 just before 8 a.m. reporting smoke in the area. Firefighters found two victims in a vehicle and notified police.
Birmingham Police are investigating this further. This is currently an unclassified death investigation until detectives gather more information about what happened.
ATF is assisting in the investigation.
Birmingham police do not have much information on the victims. Fitzgerald said they will know more after the medical examiner performs an autopsy, which will determine the cause and manner of death.
“We have two victims in this case, so we will keep our ears open for any missing persons,” Fitzgerald said.
The Birmingham Police Department is asking anyone who is concerned that they have not heard from a loved one in the past 24-48 hours to call them or stop by BPD headquarters.
The two deaths under investigation took place in the Airport district.
“I’ve grown up at the airport all my life and I’ve been concerned about what’s going on here,” Johnny Samuel said.
He owns a rental property not far from where the two bodies were found in the burned car.
“My niece is staying at the rental property and I’m worried about her, there’s no one on the street she’s on,” Samuel explained.
He was grateful to learn his niece was OK, but added: “someone is going to suffer from this, but I feel bad for other people, it’s someone’s son or daughter, whatever happened.”
Not far from Tuesday’s death investigation, an 18-year-old youth was found shot to death lying on a secluded road in October 2021. As of today, Birmingham police are still searching for the person responsible for the death of Kwesi Barham.
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“This neighborhood tends to have things going on,” Samuel said.
There are dilapidated houses and discarded rubbish piles up on the surrounding roads.
“It’s a concern, like I said, I don’t understand it,” Samuel said.
People say they would like to see something done to make the private roads near the airport safer. Many people in the community have told us that it’s usually the people who don’t live there who are the cause of the concern.
“We are trying to block those roads that the airport has access to. It serves no one. There are no homes or anything in the back of this property. We would like to see them blocked off like Porto Madrid,” said Chris Evans, president of the Airport Hills neighborhood.
Evans also suggested cameras and spotters.
He described Pleasant View Missionary Baptist Church as a centerpiece and would like to see development around it.
“We’d like to build the rest of the neighborhood to look as positive as our church,” Evans said.
In the hope that something can spark a change so that what happened on Tuesday doesn’t happen again here.
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“It affects everyone, it’s a village. It affects everyone that two more people will no longer be with them,” Evans said.
The airport owns the land around where the vehicle was found, but it was on a city street. A spokesperson for Birmingham Shuttlesworth International Airport told ABC 33/40 that littering in the area is an ongoing problem. The spokesperson said that on the land owned by the airport, they have a contractor that comes out regularly to clean it up.
As for whether or not the area could be developed, the spokesperson said the area is covered by a conceptual redevelopment plan, so it could be part of a future development if a developer is interested in it.
We have been directed to the city as to whether or not a public street closure is being considered. We have reached out to the city and are awaiting a response.