Lamar Markeith Harris

Lamar Markeith Harris, a 26-year-old Black man from Birmingham, Alabama, is remembered by his family for his loving nature and the joy he brought them. His life was cut short in the early hours of Sunday, June 14, 2020, when he was shot and killed while riding his bicycle in the South East Lake neighborhood. The attack happened just after midnight, shattering the quiet of a residential street and leaving a family to mourn a man they cherished.

Just after 12:15 a.m., officers from the Birmingham Police Department’s East Precinct were dispatched to the 7600 block of 3rd Avenue South on a report of a person down. When they arrived, they discovered Lamar Harris lying unresponsive in the front yard of a home. He had sustained multiple gunshot wounds. Paramedics from Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service soon joined them at the scene and pronounced him dead. Evidence gathered by investigators indicated that Harris had been on his bicycle when his assailant opened fire in what appeared to be a sudden and deadly ambush. At the time, his death was recorded as the 44th homicide in Birmingham that year.

In the immediate aftermath, detectives had few leads and no suspects in custody. They worked to piece together the final moments of Harris's life, trying to establish a motive for why he was targeted on that quiet street. For nearly three years, the case remained publicly unresolved, with no arrests announced and no new information released. For his family and community, it was a long and painful wait for answers, a period of uncertainty where justice seemed distant.

The break in the investigation came in the spring of 2023. On April 13, the Birmingham Police Department announced that its homicide detectives had continued to develop leads and had finally secured criminal warrants in the case. They identified Torace Jahkino Laster, a 25-year-old from Center Point, as the suspect. Laster was charged with murder, for which no bond was set, and with being a person forbidden to possess a firearm, which carried a $15,000 bond.

Police also revealed a potential motive for the nearly three-year-old crime, stating that they believed Laster was upset with Harris over an alleged theft. The arrest, however, did not mean an immediate court appearance in Alabama. At the time the warrants were issued, Laster was already incarcerated in a federal prison in Memphis, Tennessee, on unrelated charges. Authorities confirmed he would remain in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons until he could be extradited to Jefferson County to face the charges in Harris’s death.

The announcement of an arrest so long after the crime demonstrated the persistence of the detectives who refused to let the case go cold. It brought a measure of hope to a family that had waited years for a sign of progress. The case against Torace Laster is now pending in the Alabama court system. As of the latest reports, he was awaiting extradition to Jefferson County to answer for the murder of Lamar Harris, a young man whose life ended violently on a summer night, but whose memory continues to be honored by those who loved him.