Richard Bernard Smith, a 59-year-old man from Birmingham, Alabama, was killed in the dark hours of Tuesday, December 1, 2015, after gunfire erupted outside his home on 81st Place South. The first calls reporting the shooting came in just before 4 a.m., and police and firefighters rushed to the 700 block, where the scene quickly hardened into a homicide investigation.
Investigators said Smith had been coming back from a store when trouble found him near his own front door.
Accounts released that day described at least two armed men confronting Smith and the person with him as they approached the house. The encounter escalated in moments—words were exchanged, and as Smith tried to get inside, shots rang out. He was struck and ended up inside the residence near the entrance, where responders found him and where he was pronounced dead.
As daylight spread across the neighborhood, police worked to piece together what the attackers wanted and how they escaped. Early information shared publicly described the confrontation as a robbery attempt, with the gunmen demanding money and ordering the victims toward the house before fleeing in a dark-colored vehicle. Investigators appealed for tips and asked anyone who knew what happened, or who recognized the description of the suspects or their car, to come forward.
In the immediate aftermath, authorities reported that two people were in custody and being questioned, but at that time no charges had been filed. Public updates available from early reporting did not identify named suspects, announce an arrest warrant, or describe a later prosecution tied to Smith’s killing, leaving the case—at least in what was reported publicly—shrouded in uncertainty beyond the first urgent hours when detectives were still trying to pin down exactly who pulled up in the dark and why Smith never made it safely back through his own door.
