On March 14, 2016, a dispute between two men in Athens, Alabama, culminated in the shooting death of 41-year-old Kevin Kirk Bell. The incident, which unfolded at the Higgins Court Apartments, led to the arrest of Frank Harper Franklin IV, a 28-year-old from Decatur.
That morning, police responded to a call about a shooting at the apartment complex on Hine Street. They discovered Bell on the ground between two apartment buildings, having sustained a single gunshot wound to the face.
He was pronounced dead at the scene. Bell, a resident of the Higgins Court Apartments where he lived with his mother, was known to be a comical, smart, and kindhearted man.
Later that same day, Franklin turned himself in to the Decatur Police Department. He was subsequently arrested and charged with the murder of Kevin Kirk Bell. Investigators learned that the two men were seen talking in a lot between the apartment buildings just before the fatal shot was fired.
Franklin was indicted by a Limestone County grand jury in May 2016. During his trial, he admitted to shooting Bell but maintained that he acted in self-defense. Franklin testified that he had accompanied his girlfriend to Bell's mother's apartment to retrieve some of her belongings. An argument ensued between him and Bell in the breezeway of the apartment buildings. Franklin claimed that Bell had a handgun and that he fired his own weapon because he believed his life was in danger. A medical examiner testified that Bell was killed by a single bullet that entered near his left eye.
