Willie Sanchez Henderson, a 31-year-old Black man, was found fatally shot inside a home on the 1200 block of Princeton Avenue Southwest in the Arlington-West End neighborhood of Birmingham on the evening of December 16, 2023. Neighbors reported hearing gunfire around 5:42 p.m.; Birmingham Police and Birmingham Fire and Rescue Services responded and pronounced Henderson deceased at the scene after he was found unresponsive with a gunshot wound.

Police investigators described the shooting as targeted rather than random. No one was taken into custody immediately after the December 16 incident, and the community and Henderson’s family were left seeking answers. In late January 2024 a 20-year-old, Augustus Artez Benson Jr., was identified and arrested in North Birmingham and charged with murder; he was known to be a friend of a member of Henderson’s family and was held in the Jefferson County Jail without bond.

If anyone saw activity on Princeton Avenue Southwest that evening or has information about Henderson’s death or Benson’s movements, please come forward.