Armonda Contreras, a 43-year-old man, died on June 14, 2021, after a tense chain of events that began on Birmingham’s Parkway East and ended inside a small restaurant on 1st Avenue North. Police said officers noticed a pickup being driven on the wrong side of the road in the 9100 block and tried to stop it, but the driver kept going, drawing officers into a pursuit that rolled toward the city’s North East Lake area.
The pursuit ended at Tienda Y Taqueria Mexican Restaurant in the 8500 block of 1st Avenue North, where police said Contreras jumped out and ran inside. The restaurant’s normal rhythm—customers, counters, glass bottles, close quarters—was suddenly swallowed by chaos as officers followed him in and tried to gain control of the situation.
Inside, police said Contreras began hurling glass bottles at officers. They deployed stun guns, but the confrontation turned into a physical struggle. In the middle of the scuffle, police reported that Contreras reached for an officer’s stun gun, and officers fired multiple shots. Even then, police said he continued to fight before collapsing. No officers needed medical treatment, and police said no one else inside the restaurant was hurt.
Contreras was rushed by ambulance to UAB Hospital, where he later died from his injuries, according to police and the Jefferson County Coroner. The death was treated as an officer-involved shooting, and the investigation was handed to state authorities rather than being handled solely by the department involved.
As far as public reporting shows, there were no arrests announced in connection with Contreras’s death, and no outside suspect was identified, because the only reported shooters were Birmingham police officers during the altercation. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency was said to be investigating, but details beyond the initial account were limited in the publicly released information.
