On April 26, 2019, police were called to the Birmingham Garden Inn on Crestwood Boulevard, where they found Sterling Bradley, 33, a Black man from Birmingham, lying unresponsive in a breezeway. He had been shot, and officers determined he died at the scene, turning what might have looked like an ordinary corner of a local business into the still center of a homicide investigation.
As word spread that a man had been killed at the inn, investigators worked the case in the days that followed, focusing on who had crossed paths with Bradley there and why. Birmingham Police later announced they had made an arrest: Nicholas Burrell, of Fultondale, was taken into custody and charged with murder. Reports at the time described him being held in the Jefferson County Jail as the case moved forward through the early stages of the system.
In the months after the shooting, the charge did not fade into the background. Public reporting about Birmingham homicides later noted that Burrell was indicted by a grand jury in January 2020, signaling the case had advanced beyond the initial arrest into formal prosecution. The available public sources located for this incident describe the arrest, the murder charge, and the later indictment, but they do not provide clear, detailed reporting on a trial, plea, or final court disposition connected to Bradley’s death.
