Demarko Cortez Devan Harris, 30, a Black man from Birmingham, was found dead beside a burning car on June 24, 2016. Emergency crews responded around 8:30 p.m. to a vehicle fire in the 2100 block of Smith Avenue in the West Brownville area; after the flames were extinguished officers discovered the charred remains of a victim lying on the ground outside the burning vehicle. Authorities treated the death as a homicide and later identified the victim as Harris.

Public summaries indicate the scene suggested a violent death followed by an apparent attempt to destroy evidence with fire, and investigators focused on how Harris came to be next to the burning car rather than inside it. The available reporting did not provide a full timeline of events or detail the cause of death, and no named suspect or arrest was noted in the material reviewed.

Did anyone in the area on Smith Avenue that night see anything that could help explain how Harris ended up at that scene?