On a spring afternoon in Birmingham, Alabama, a dispute tragically cut short the life of 31-year-old Derrick Dewayne King. On March 1, 2013, King was involved in a verbal altercation that escalated to fatal violence. He was found on the grass in the 500 block of 10th Court North, suffering from a gunshot wound.
Responding to a report of a person shot, North Precinct officers discovered King around 3 p.m.
Immediate investigations into the incident led to the swift identification and arrest of a suspect on the very same day. The individual taken into custody was a man with a violent past, a convicted murderer who had been released from prison just a few months prior, in November 2012.
The suspect had a previous conviction for a homicide that occurred in 2005. Following the altercation with King, he once again found himself facing the consequences of deadly actions. Law enforcement officials announced the arrest, signaling a quick, though somber, development in the case that had just begun to unfold. The confrontation that ended in King's death marked a tragic return to violence for the recently freed man and a devastating loss for the family and friends of Derrick King.
