Hernando Retion McJunkins, 39, was shot and killed outside the King’s Inn on Third Avenue North in Birmingham shortly after 2:30 a.m. on August 17, 2021. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:56 a.m. The shooting prompted a homicide investigation that quickly focused on two men, Christopher Garcia Spencer, 35, of Birmingham, and Ira Dexter Eaton Jr., 29, of Irondale.

Authorities allege Eaton fired the fatal pistol shot and that both men fled in a vehicle. Eaton was arrested on Joppa Avenue in Birmingham the next day, August 18, and was booked into the Jefferson County Jail on August 20 on a murder charge held without bond. Spencer was located and arrested in Philadelphia, Mississippi, on August 27 and charged with murder while awaiting extradition to Jefferson County. The account does not provide further details about motive or the circumstances leading up to the shooting.

If anyone has information about events near the King’s Inn the morning of August 17, 2021, please share what is known with investigators.