Just before 8 p.m. on May 17, 2023, police were called to the Springville Landing Apartments in Birmingham’s Huffman area after gunfire erupted around the 700 block of Springville Road. When officers arrived, they found Patrick Bennett, a 20-year-old man, down near the scene; he was pronounced dead there as detectives began piecing together what had happened in the moments leading up to the shooting.
Investigators said the violence unfolded as a resident arrived home from work and was confronted in an apparent carjacking. The victim was shot during the confrontation but managed to return fire, and authorities believed Bennett was among the people involved in the attempted takeover of the vehicle. The wounded victim was rushed to UAB Hospital with life-threatening injuries while the search widened beyond the apartment complex, driven by reports that the stolen car had been tracked away from the original scene.
Roughly 25 minutes later, Birmingham’s Real Time Crime Center helped officers locate the stolen vehicle on 9th Avenue West in the Smithfield area. When police moved in, a man was seen running from the car, and officers launched a neighborhood search—at times using a K-9 unit—while warning residents to remain alert as they looked for at least one, and possibly two, suspects connected to the carjacking.
In the months that followed, the case shifted from a homicide investigation to a “justifiable death” classification after the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office reviewed the findings and determined the carjacking victim’s return gunfire was legally justified. Reports indicated that, even with the wider search for other participants, no one had been taken into custody in connection with Bennett’s death at the time the reclassification was made public.
