Shortly after midnight on February 26, 2025, gunfire in the 1800 block of Crescent Avenue in Lipscomb, Alabama, left 18-year-old Marquese Janhari Webster of Bessemer with fatal wounds. The shooting occurred around 12:45 a.m.; Webster was taken by a 21-year-old woman to UAB Medical West Hospital in Bessemer, where he was pronounced dead at 1:20 a.m. The woman had also been shot during the same altercation.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office opened a homicide investigation and initially had no identified suspect or known motive; the killing was reported as the first homicide of the year in Lipscomb. Investigators later arrested two men, Timothy O'Neal Epps Jr. and Tedarius Lee McCoy, on capital murder charges in connection with Webster’s death. The precise circumstances and how each person was involved remain under investigation as the case proceeds through the courts.

If anyone witnessed the February 26 incident on Crescent Avenue or has information that could help, please contact the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.