On an early Saturday morning in Birmingham, Alabama, a dispute turned deadly, ending the life of Antonio Deandre Benson. Mr. Benson, a 28-year-old Black man from Birmingham, was killed on December 16, 2023, in the city’s populated Lakeview District. His death was one of three homicides that occurred in the city on that single day.
The violence erupted just before 3 a.m. on 29th Street South, near a strip of bars and a food truck.
According to police, an argument broke out between two groups of men, which then escalated into a physical fight. The two groups began shooting at each other. Several off-duty police officers were working as security at a nearby bar and heard the gunshots. When on-duty officers responded to the scene, they found two men had been shot.
Antonio Benson was pronounced dead at the scene. The second man was transported to UAB Hospital with life-threatening injuries. Investigators noted that the area had been crowded at the time of the shooting and that several vehicles were also struck by gunfire. "We know that Lakeview was pretty populated this morning and people saw something,” said Officer Truman Fitzgerald of the Birmingham Police Department.
The investigation quickly led police to identify two brothers as suspects. On Thursday, December 21, less than a week after the shooting, authorities took the two men into custody. Dearius Davis, 24, was charged with murder for his alleged role in the death of Antonio Benson. His brother, 26-year-old Dequantez Davis, was charged with attempted murder in connection with the second man who was shot and injured.
Dequantez Davis was released on bond the same afternoon he was taken into custody. As of December 2023, the case was proceeding through the legal system.
