Del Hardy Lawson Jr., a 21-year-old African American man, died on September 23, 2016, after gunfire erupted in broad daylight at a Fairfield, Alabama gas station along Lloyd Noland Parkway. What began as an ordinary Friday afternoon at the Chevron ended in chaos near the pumps, with witnesses and investigators describing a two-man shootout that unfolded fast and left little time for anyone nearby to react.
Police said the two men were believed to have been shooting at each other.
In the frantic moments that followed, one of the men who had been shot tried to flee in a vehicle but crashed nearby after striking a light pole, dying at the scene. Lawson was transported to a hospital with critical injuries, but he did not survive. The second man killed in the same exchange was identified in reports as Darryl Dewayne Grace, 26, tying the deaths together as part of the same confrontation rather than two separate incidents.
Investigators worked to determine what set the confrontation in motion and why the gunfire started, but early reporting emphasized how little was immediately known beyond the fact that the two men appeared to be the only shooters involved. Fairfield’s police chief stated that officers were not looking for any other suspects, framing the case as a fatal exchange between the two men rather than an attack by an unknown third party.
Because both men believed to have been involved in the shooting died from their injuries, there were no announced arrests connected to Lawson’s death in the immediate aftermath, and public statements indicated no additional suspects were being sought. The outcome left the case centered less on a pursuit of a fleeing offender and more on reconstructing the moments that led to the gunfire—what words were exchanged, what grievance or spark ignited it, and how a dispute reached the point where both men ended up dead.
In the days that followed, Lawson’s death was marked not only in police reports but in the quieter rituals of mourning. His obituary described him as being of Bessemer and noted funeral services held October 1, 2016, at Christ Temple Deliverance Church in Birmingham, with burial at Oakland Cemetery—details that place the violence of that afternoon against the backdrop of a family and community left to bury someone who should have had far more years ahead.
