A quiet street in Birmingham’s Bush Hills neighborhood became the scene of a somber discovery on April 27, 2025. Inside a triplex on 8th Court West, across from the historic Legion Field, a citizen found the body of a young man who had been fatally shot. The victim was identified as Richard Alexander Wilson Jr., a 28-year-old male from Dothan, Alabama.
Wilson, who was born on April 30, 1996, in Tifton, Georgia, was just a few days shy of his 29th birthday. The circumstances surrounding his presence in Birmingham and the motive for the shooting were not immediately clear to investigators as they began their work to piece together the events that led to his untimely death. His family in Tifton would later prepare for a funeral service to be held in his hometown, a stark contrast to the violent end his life met in another city.
The investigation into Wilson's death moved forward, and soon the Birmingham Police Department had a breakthrough. Less than two weeks after the discovery of Wilson's body, authorities announced the arrest of a suspect. Sherman Roundtree was taken into custody and charged with the murder of Richard Alexander Wilson Jr. Following his arrest, Roundtree was booked into the Jefferson County Jail, where he was held without bond as he awaited legal proceedings. The arrest brought a measure of progress to a case that had started with a grim and unexpected discovery, offering the first steps toward uncovering the full story behind the tragic death of a man far from his hometown.
