Corey Dewayne Alexander, a 20-year-old Black male from Bessemer, Alabama, was caught in a burst of gunfire in late morning on June 4, 2020, when a dispute spiraled into a chaotic shootout in the 1600 block of 25th Street North. Investigators described a scene that looked more like the aftermath of a battle than a neighborhood street: dozens upon dozens of shell casings scattered across the ground, multiple calibers recovered, and evidence that more than one weapon had been firing as people
scrambled for cover. Four people were struck by bullets in the exchange, and rather than waiting for ambulances, the wounded were rushed away in private vehicles—some taken to UAB West in Bessemer and at least one taken to UAB in Birmingham—while the gunfire’s echo still hung in the air.
For Alexander, the trip to the hospital became a desperate race against time. Authorities said he was moved from UAB West to UAB in Birmingham, where doctors fought to save him, but the injuries proved fatal and he died after the shooting. In the first days, police emphasized how fluid and murky the situation was, saying they believed the people who were shot were not simply bystanders but were involved in the incident itself, and they urged anyone with information to come forward as detectives tried to untangle who fired which shots and why the confrontation erupted with such intensity.
Weeks later, investigators announced arrests tied not to a straightforward allegation of being the triggerman, but to felony-murder warrants. Kenderous Abercrombie, Christopher Cobb, and Khari Herbert were taken into custody and charged with felony murder, each with bonds reported at $75,000. Police accounts in reporting about the case indicated the three were connected to the events that led to Alexander’s death—described as participating in conduct that culminated in the deadly exchange—while the broader questions of who fired the fatal round and the full chain of decisions that turned an argument into a barrage remained at the center of the investigation’s narrative.
