Brandon Mcguire

Brandon DeWayne McGuire, a 23-year-old Black man, was a husband and father whose life was violently taken on a summer night in Birmingham, Alabama, leaving a void that his family would feel for more than a decade. The pain of his unsolved murder was compounded years later by another family tragedy, creating a cycle of grief for those who loved him most.

On the evening of August 3, 2009, Brandon was with some friends, standing in the driveway of a vacant house in the 5900 block of Jesse Owens Drive in west Birmingham. At approximately 10:45 p.m., the relative quiet of the night was shattered by a sudden barrage of gunfire. The shots came from the shadows between nearby houses. When the shooting stopped, Brandon McGuire was found dead in the driveway. Witnesses reported seeing two men, both armed with guns, running from an alley after the shooting. They were seen getting into a white SUV and speeding away from the scene.

The Birmingham Police Department launched a homicide investigation, but the case quickly grew cold. The gunmen who fled in the white SUV seemed to vanish, and despite initial witness accounts, no arrests were ever made. For years, the silence surrounding Brandon’s murder frustrated both his family and law enforcement. In a 2014 appeal for information, then-Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper expressed his belief that people in the community held the key to solving the case. "A lot of people know exactly who we're looking for," Roper said. "Now, it's a matter of getting some courage and making an anonymous call."

The weight of Brandon's unsolved killing hung heavily over his family, particularly his son, Desmon. According to his mother, Debra McGuire, Desmon never got over his father's death and was deeply hurt by it. "The older he got, the more the pain and hurt started to show," she said. "He wanted answers about what happened to his dad." Tragically, justice would elude the family, and history would repeat itself in the most devastating way. In June 2021, nearly 12 years after his father was killed, 17-year-old Desmon Antwuan McGuire was also shot and killed in Birmingham.

Desmon died in front of his 16-year-old sister after an alleged verbal dispute. His death reopened the wounds of his father's murder for his mother, a U.S. Army veteran. "I wish it would stop," Debra McGuire said after losing her son. "It’s not fair to the families. It’s not fair to my other children. It’s not fair to me. It’s a pain you can’t describe." Facing another homicide investigation, she expressed a fragile hope for a different outcome. "I just want to have faith in the justice system, in the detectives," she said. "I feel like I’ve been failed once. Please bring them to justice. He deserves it."

While a person of interest was questioned in Desmon's case, his father's murder from 2009 remains officially unsolved. The investigation has spanned more than a decade without resolution, leaving a family doubly shattered by gun violence. The killers who opened fire from between the houses on Jesse Owens Drive have never been held accountable for their actions.

As of the latest reports, no arrests have been made in the murder of Brandon DeWayne McGuire. The case is still open, and authorities continue to seek information from the public. Crime Stoppers of Metro Alabama offers a cash reward for tips that lead to an arrest. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Birmingham Police Department Homicide Unit at (205) 254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at (205) 254-7777. Tipsters can remain anonymous.