On the night of October 8, 2023, in Birmingham, Alabama, Geremy Earl Picking, a 43-year-old man, was walking along Bessemer Road when the energy of an illegal street-racing crowd spilled into something far darker. Just before midnight in the 1700 block of Bessemer Road, he was struck in the roadway and pronounced dead at the scene, identified publicly in early reports as Geremy Earl Fantroy and Geremy Earl Fantroy Picking.
Investigators said the crash unfolded as Birmingham police moved to break up street racing near the Birmingham Crossplex. In the confusion, multiple vehicles fled, and police later determined that a red Chrysler 300 was the vehicle that hit Picking as it sped away. Authorities described a separate enforcement action happening at the same time involving a yellow Kia Stinger that officers believed might have been stolen; police initiated a chase but called it off due to the driver’s actions, and they emphasized they were not pursuing the Chrysler 300 when the fatal strike happened.
Days later, police announced arrests that, in their telling, stitched together the frantic moments after the impact and what came afterward. Malic Paradise, 20, was identified as the suspected driver of the red Chrysler 300 and was arrested on October 18, 2023, and charged with manslaughter, leaving the scene of an accident with injury, and attempting to elude. His older brother, Kijuntai Paradise, 23, was arrested the same day and charged with hindering prosecution after police said he helped destroy evidence. Antonio Gonzales-Rebeles Jr., 22, was arrested in connection with the Kia Stinger incident and charged with felony attempting to elude, reckless endangerment, and resisting arrest; police also reported seizing the Kia and multiple handguns during the arrests and recovering the Chrysler believed to have struck Picking.
In the public accounts released at the time, investigators framed Picking’s death as a hit-and-run tied to the broader problem of exhibition driving and illegal street racing, and the arrests were presented as a warning shot to others who treated the streets like a track. Those reports centered on the charges and the investigative steps—video evidence, recovered vehicles, and allegations of evidence destruction—while later court outcomes were not detailed in the same coverage.
