On the late morning of February 18, 2016, 28-year-old Gwendolyn Ayers was shot and killed in west Birmingham. She was walking in the 1500 block of Second Court West around 11:45 a.m. when a verbal dispute with occupants of a gold Buick LeSabre escalated and she was struck by gunfire. Wounded, Ayers tried to flee but collapsed a short distance away on 15th Street West, where she was pronounced dead. The shooting forced a nearby elementary school into a temporary lockdown.

Investigators appealed to the public for information. Nearly a year later, in November 2016, a capital murder warrant was issued for Lederrius Christian; he turned himself in to Birmingham police in January and was booked into the Jefferson County Jail. Ayers’ death was one of 109 homicides recorded in Birmingham in 2016.

If anyone has information about the February 18, 2016 shooting or the people in the gold Buick LeSabre, please come forward.