On Tuesday afternoon, April 10, 2018, a heroin transaction on Hillview Lane in Birmingham, Alabama ended in gunfire that killed 30-year-old Gavan Jamal Averhart of Bessemer. Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies found Averhart in the driver’s seat of a car with a fatal gunshot wound; a second man in the vehicle, 34-year-old Ronnie Owens Davis of Birmingham, was seriously injured. Deputies also found a gun, illegal drugs, and cash in the car.

Investigators traced a third participant, 23-year-old De’Erin Ward of Center Point, to a hospital with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. Ward told detectives Averhart and Davis had picked him up to buy heroin and that, once on Hillview Lane, Averhart and Davis tried to rob him. Ward said Davis, in the front passenger seat, shot him and that Ward returned fire, striking both Averhart and Davis. The Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office issued an arrest warrant for Ronnie Owens Davis charging him with murder under the Felony Murder Rule; Davis was also held on outstanding felony warrants. Both Davis and Ward are convicted felons, raising the possibility of federal felon-in-possession charges.

Are there witnesses who saw the car on Hillview Lane that afternoon or anyone who can confirm who fired first?