Two-year-old RonNarius Austin was shot and killed on the evening of Saturday, August 5, 2017, while riding in a car with his parents in Birmingham’s Avondale district. Witnesses and police said the vehicle was ambushed and shots were fired from another car; the toddler was struck in the head and later pronounced dead. His mother and another adult passenger were wounded; the driver, his father, was uninjured. Authorities described the attack as targeted.

Birmingham police quickly identified four men as persons of interest and within days charged them with capital murder: Tyrone Smith, then 18; D’Marco Harris, 21; Mykahl Harris, 20; and Joshua Carpenter, 21. All four were held without bond in Jefferson County Jail. In November 2017 the capital murder charge against Joshua Carpenter was dismissed for lack of credible evidence. At an unspecified later time the capital murder charge against D’Marco Harris was also dropped; in May 2022 he was arrested on an unrelated murder charge in Birmingham.

Does anyone have information about the August 5, 2017 ambush in Avondale or knew RonNarius and his family?