Ladevine Adre Crutcher, a 33-year-old Black man, was killed on the afternoon of September 7, 2024, in his hometown of Athens, Alabama. Just before 3 p.m., multiple 911 calls reported a shooting at the Fifth Avenue Apartments in the 700 block of Fifth Avenue. When Athens police officers arrived, they found Mr. Crutcher in a grassy area of the complex courtyard.
According to the Limestone County coroner, he had been shot multiple times and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Witnesses told investigators that a fight had broken out just before the gunfire erupted, and video evidence of the altercation and shooting was recovered. Around the same time officers were responding to the apartment complex, another man arrived at Athens-Limestone Hospital in a private vehicle. He had a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to his leg, an injury police determined he sustained in the same grassy area where Mr. Crutcher was found.
The investigation moved quickly. About 20 minutes after arriving on the scene, police detained one man for questioning. That Saturday evening, they arrested a 17-year-old in connection with the shooting. The teenager, later identified as Cedric Lavone Fuqua Jr., was charged as an adult.
Fuqua was initially charged with murder, though the charge was later upgraded to capital murder. During a court appearance on September 12, 2024, his defense attorneys stated that their client maintained his innocence and that evidence would eventually come out. They suggested Fuqua may have acted in self-defense. Later that month, a judge found there was probable cause to move forward, and the case was sent to a Limestone County grand jury for consideration.
In September 2026, the Limestone County grand jury formally indicted Cedric Lavone Fuqua Jr. on two charges: murder and provocation manslaughter. The indictment accused Fuqua of intentionally shooting and killing Ladevine Crutcher, or alternatively, of causing his death “due to a sudden heat of passion caused by provocation recognized by law.” As of September 2026, Fuqua was being held in the Limestone County Jail without bond while awaiting trial.
