A late-afternoon dispute inside the Superior for Men store at Roebuck Marketplace in Birmingham on September 4, 2021, ended in gunfire that killed 21-year-old Cornelius JaShawn Hilliard and 26-year-old Reginald Curtis Crawford Jr. Two other men were wounded and taken to a local hospital.

Police pursued a vehicle believed linked to the shooting; it crashed near Tarrant-Huffman Road and Linthicum Street in Tarrant. Three male suspects were arrested at the crash scene and a fourth ran off on foot and initially evaded capture. Authorities later charged 19-year-old Jureil Dowdell with murder and attempted murder and an unidentified 17-year-old male with murder; both were held in the Jefferson County Jail without bond while the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office reviewed the case.

Cornelius Hilliard was a distant cousin of Birmingham City Councilor John Hilliard, who spoke publicly about his grief and the wider impact of violent crime on families. If anyone was at the Roebuck Marketplace that afternoon or has information about the shooting, please come forward.