Richard Deshuan Vaughn Jr., a 39-year-old man from Birmingham, Alabama, was killed late on the night of November 22, 2020, after violence erupted outside a Captain D’s seafood restaurant on Parkway East. Police were called to the location at about 10:30 p.m., and officers arriving at the scene found him down in the parking lot with a gunshot wound, the kind of injury that turns a busy stretch of asphalt into a sudden, frantic crime scene.
As detectives began piecing together what happened, early accounts described an argument and a physical fight involving employees inside or around the restaurant—tension that spilled outward and drew other people to the scene. Investigators said the confrontation escalated when non-employees arrived to intervene, and in that swirl of tempers and movement, gunfire broke out. Vaughn was taken to UAB Hospital, but he did not survive; he was pronounced dead shortly after midnight. Police also emphasized that Vaughn was not an employee of Captain D’s.
Within days, police identified a suspect and moved quickly to make an arrest. Authorities said Donovin Allen, 31, of McCalla was taken into custody and charged with murder. A second charge—discharging a firearm into an unoccupied vehicle—was also filed as the investigation focused on where the shots went and what else they struck amid the chaos. Police reported that the case information was presented to the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office for review before warrants were issued, and Allen was held in the Jefferson County Jail on bond reported in news coverage at roughly the $150,000 to $165,000 range.
