In the spring of 2020, the life of Daryl Eugene Cross, a 45-year-old male, was abruptly cut short in a burst of violence at an east Birmingham, Alabama, gas station. On the evening of April 24th, Cross was at a Shell gas station when a man, later identified as Reginald Lamar Bonner, exited the store. In a seemingly unprovoked attack, Bonner allegedly shot Cross and then fled the scene on foot, leaving behind a chaotic and tragic scene.
The motive for the shooting remained unclear to investigators in the immediate aftermath.
The Birmingham Police Department quickly launched an investigation into the homicide. Within days, their efforts led to the identification and arrest of a suspect. Reginald Lamar Bonner, then 40 years old, was taken into custody and subsequently charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with the fatal shooting of Daryl Eugene Cross. At the time of his arrest, it was noted that Bonner had been released from federal prison in December of 2019. He was booked into the Jefferson County Jail and held without bond.
While the state-level murder and attempted murder charges were pending, Reginald Lamar Bonner faced legal consequences on a federal level. On the same day as the shooting, Bonner, a convicted felon, was found to be in illegal possession of a firearm. In August 2021, a federal judge sentenced him to 96 months in prison for this offense. This sentence was ordered to be served consecutively to a 24-month federal revocation sentence from a prior case. Court records indicate that an appeal was filed by Reginald Lamar Bonner in the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, and on April 19, 2024, his application for a rehearing was overruled.
