AL Murder Arrest Reveals Ties to Others Including Birmingham Firefighter
By Carol Robinson, Jeremy Gray
Source al.com (TNS)
The arrest in the September mass shooting in Birmingham’s Five Points South reveals a tangled web linking four people shot to death outside Hush lounge to seven other homicides over the past eight years.
Damien Laron McDaniel III, 22, is charged with capital murder in the September mass shooting, Birmingham police announced Wednesday.
McDaniel is also charged in two other homicides, one two days before the Southside shootings and another the following night.
Another of the three other suspects in the shooting that happened the night after the Hush shooting was acquitted of a 2021 homicide, a fatal shooting witnessed by a Birmingham firefighter who himself was killed in 2023.
Two of the Hush victims were charged in homicides.
One victim was acquitted in the 2016 shooting death of a 15-year-old police said was killed in retaliation for another shooting in 2015.
Another victim saw his murder charge in the 2021 shooting of a 20-year-old dismissed a year later.
Another of the Hush victims lost the father of her daughter to a still unsolved 2022 homicide.
These are the victims in all of the cases:
Diontrante Tinae Brown, 35, Sept, 19, 2024: Brown was said to be an innocent bystander killed in a shooting inside 604 Bar and Lounge on Ninth Street North.
A vigil was held for Brown the same night as the vigil for 21-year-old Anitra Holloman, who was killed in the Five Points South mass shooting. Both vigils were held in Railroad Park and both honored young mothers lost to gun violence.
Brown, a graduate of Wenonah High School, left behind a 14-year-old son and a host of grieving family and friends.
“She was a sweet and loving person. She brightened the room anyplace she went‚'’ said Brown’s first cousin, Anthony Gardner. “It’s just sad that her life was cut short over foolishness.”
McDaniel is charged with her murder. How or if the shooting in the bar is linked to the Hush shooting is unknown.
Jamarcus McIntyre, 32, Sept. 22, 2024: McIntyre died in a hail of gunfire in the 700 block of 81st Place South the night after the Five Points South shooting.
Ny’Quan Cordae Lollar, 22, Larry Denzel Rollins, Jr., 31, and Demarco Nakia Beck Jr., 29. were also charged alongside McDaniel with capital in McIntyre’s death.
Charging documents state McIntyre was killed while he was being robbed of a backpack and its contents.
A celebration of life service for McIntyre was held Sept. 28 at Central Missionary Baptist Church and he was buried at Sunrise Memorial Gardens, according to his obituary.
It is also unknown how, or if, this homicide is tied to the Five Points South massacre other than McDaniel is charged in this case as well.
Rollins is linked to two other deadly shootings though he was only charged with one.
Eric Tyler Sledge Jr., 27, May 2, 2021: The 27-year-old Hoover father was gunned down in Southside when police said a physical altercation inside a business spilled into the street and ended with shots fired.
The killing happened about 12:30 a.m. that Sunday in the 1100 block of 20th Street South, not far from the site of the Hush lounge shooting three years later.
Survived by his son, parents and friends, Sledge was laid to rest in Huntsville.
Rollins was charged with Sledge’s murder.
Birmingham firefighter Jordan Melton was a witness to Sledge’s killing. Rollins’ lawyers argued it was self-defense and he was acquitted.
Jordan Melton, 29, July 12, 2023: Melton was gunned down in a targeted shooting at Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service’s Station 9 before he was to testify in the Sledge homicide.
No one has been charged in Melton’s death and police have not said whether they have considered Melton witnessing Sledge’s fatal shooting to be part of the investigation into Melton’s killing.
Another firefighter, Jamal Jones, was shot, critically injured and promoted to the rank of sergeant.
They were performing routine maintenance in the station’s bay area when a gunman opened fire in what police say was a personal, targeted attack.
Melton, affectionately known by many as Chato, has been remembered as an ambitious young man with an infectious smile and an unfailing love for those around him. He not only dreamed of being firefighter since he was a child, but one day hoped to be a fire chief.
“When Jordan loved you, you knew that he loved you,’’ said close friend Larry Williams. “There was no room he could be in and you not know he was there.”
The Hush victims and their ties to other murders
Carlos McCain, 27, Roderick Lynn Patterson Jr., 26, Holloman, 21, and Tahj Booker, 27, died in the Sept. 21 mass shooting that left 17 others wounded.
McCain was acquitted of murder and attempted murder in 2017 in the June 4, 2016 shooting death of 15-year-old Minor High School student Kelvon Julius, who police said was killed in retaliation for another shooting in 2015. A second suspect pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Kelvon was shot around 2:45 a.m. that Saturday morning in the 200 block of 12th Street South and pronounced dead on the scene. A young woman also shot in the incident and survived her injuries.
Kelvon was involved in a shooting during the summer of 2015 where the cousin of one of his suspected shooters was the intended target, police said.
When a suspect spotted Kelvon that morning, he then shot him in retaliation for the previous incident, police said.
Kelvon’s family said he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“It’s been rough for everybody, especially when you know he wasn’t the intended person,” Kelvon’s cousin, Jaquese Douglas, told WBRC. “Hard on everybody. We all hurt.”
It was not clear who was shot or how badly they were injured in the 2015 incident that police said led to Kelvon’s death.
Patterson was previously charged with murder in the June 28, 2021 shooting of 20-year-old Dentarius Maurice Jackson, who was gunned down at the gas pumps at the Chevron on First Ave. North.
In 2022, the murder charge against Patterson was dismissed at the request of prosecutors citing “death, unavailability, and non-cooperation of witnesses.”
Jackson was shot in the face at 10:30 p.m. that Monday at the Chevron at 8730 First Ave. North and died the nest day at UAB Hospital.
“This hardworking young man was loved by many and will be missed greatly everyday,” a GoFundme for Jackson stated.
McCain, who graduated from Jackson-Olin High School in 2015 and was killed outside the Hush lounge, was known to his friends as “Los” and “Lil Carlos.”
“Carlos was a vibrant little boy that was full of energy. Carlos loved to dress from head to toe and step out on the scene to shine like the rare diamond he was,’’ according to his obituary.
“He was a fearless, strong Warrior,’’ the obituary read. “Carlos was kind-hearted, and he had the best sense of humor. Los was known to many as a gentle giant with a beautiful soul.”
Patterson’s funeral was held in Fairfield Oct. 1. He grew up playing youth athletics – baseball and football – in the western area.
Booker, family members say, protected Holloman when the shots rang out.
“To know my brother is to love him,’’ his brother, Jerome Booker, posted on Facebook the day after the shooting. “Everybody who know Tahj always knew he will protect anybody around him.”
“After them shots stopped, all I heard was my brother calling my name asking is I’m OK,’’ he wrote. “Whole time he got the girl ReRe (Holloman) in his arms on top of her like he shield her because I know how he is in that situation.”
“Then he said, ‘I’m shot,’ so I grabbed him off her and I seen my brother take his last breath,’’ he wrote.
Holloman was a single mother who was in college studying to become a teacher and worked as a tax preparer for her family’s business.
She and her daughter lived with Holloman’s mother, Candance Kemp.
“She was like the other mother,’’ Kemp said. “I’m always working, trying to take care of the kids so Anitra was my right-hand man who handled the family while I was gone. She did grocery shopping, the decorating.”
Demetris Silliman Jr., Holloman’s longtime sweetheart and father to her daughter Skilar, was found shot to death on Oct. 11, 2022.
Silliman was found unresponsive inside a vehicle in the 1100 block of Penfield Drive, which is near Zion City Road. He was pronounced dead on the scene at 1:50 a.m.
No one was ever charged in his death.
“Birmingham is just murder after murder after murder,” Kemp recently told AL.com.
“I don’t want retaliation shootings,’’ she said of her daughter’s murder.
“I want to be able to go in that courtroom for every court date. I want them to be arrested, tried and put in jail for the rest of their lives for killing my daughter.”
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