On a tragic Saturday evening, June 5, 2021, in Birmingham, Alabama, the life of 27-year-old Rikki D’Unri Christopher Bynum was cut short by gun violence. The shooting, which also claimed the life of his longtime friend, Joseph Demetrice Robinson, 25, unfolded at a Circle K gas station near Roebuck Plaza. The two men were fathers and their sudden deaths left a void in the lives of their families.
The violent encounter, which stemmed from an ongoing dispute, was captured on surveillance
video. Gunfire erupted around 9 p.m., just two blocks from the city's East Precinct. Officers in the vicinity heard the multiple shots and rushed to the scene to find three men wounded. Bynum and Robinson succumbed to their injuries. A third man, Corey Lamont Glover Jr., was also shot but survived. Miraculously, Robinson's one-year-old son, who was present during the horrific event, was unharmed after a store clerk bravely carried him to safety.
In the immediate aftermath, law enforcement acted swiftly. Based on witness descriptions, police quickly apprehended a suspect, Antonio Shaw, a short distance from the crime scene in the 9100 block of Parkway East. A weapon was also recovered. At the time of the shooting, Shaw was already out on bond for a previous shooting incident in 2018 that had wounded two people.
Justice for Rikki Bynum and Joseph Robinson was pursued through the legal system. A Jefferson County jury convicted Antonio Shaw, 32, on two counts of capital murder, two counts of attempted murder, and one count of discharging a firearm into a vehicle. Following the jury's recommendation, a judge sentenced Shaw to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the capital murder convictions. He also received life sentences for the attempted murder charges and a 10-year sentence for discharging a weapon, ensuring he would no longer be a threat to the community.
