Michael Dilworth, a 30-year-old Black man from Birmingham, Alabama, stepped into a neighborhood Exxon on Sixth Avenue South on the night of September 3, 2015, made a quick purchase, and walked back out into the parking lot. Within moments, what should have been an ordinary stop turned tense. Investigators said an altercation flared with a small group of men outside the station, and the confrontation escalated into gunfire.
When officers arrived after reports of multiple shots, they found Dilworth down behind the station—described as lying in an alley near the 10th block of Sixth Avenue South. Police accounts in subsequent reporting differed on the precise location of the wound, describing him as suffering from a gunshot injury to the forehead in the immediate aftermath and later referencing a wound to the upper torso. He was rushed to UAB Hospital, where he was pronounced dead early the next morning. A semi-automatic handgun was recovered at the scene as detectives began piecing together who fired first and why the argument erupted so suddenly.
In the days that followed, the investigation focused on identifying the men seen around the Exxon during the shooting. Birmingham police released photos of persons of interest they wanted to identify and interview, urging anyone who recognized them—or knew what led to the exchange of gunfire—to contact the homicide unit. At that stage, police said no one was in custody.
Months later, public updates still framed the case as open. A February 22, 2016 report described Birmingham police as continuing to seek a homicide suspect and again recounted the sequence: Dilworth entered the store, left, then became involved in an altercation with a small group in the parking lot that ended in gunfire, with detectives uncertain whether the victim or the group initiated the shooting. Those reports did not name any suspects, announce arrests, or describe charges, trials, or convictions connected to his killing.
