A teen is found shot to death in a car La-Corey Thomas, a 15-year-old Black male from Birmingham, was riding through the Smithfield area near Legion Field on the afternoon of June 2, 2017, when gunfire erupted around the intersection of Center Street and 9th Avenue West. Investigators said he was seated as a passenger in a Kia Optima when at least two men in another vehicle opened fire, turning an ordinary ride into a sudden, chaotic exchange of shots.
Police later described the Kia as stolen out of Trussville, and said Thomas had been traveling with two other people when the shooting started. After the first volley, the car came to a stop about a block away, and two occupants got out and chased the shooters while armed, firing back before all involved scattered at the sound of approaching sirens. In the aftermath, Thomas was left mortally wounded.
The Jefferson County Coroner identified Thomas as the victim, and authorities emphasized that the early investigation pointed to shooters in another car as the initial aggressors. No suspect names were released in the reporting available, and investigators said there had been no arrests tied to his killing at the time the case details were published.
In the days that followed, his death was marked not only by investigative notes and unanswered questions, but by the rituals of grief—an obituary listing funeral arrangements at an Eastside Funeral Home location in Birmingham and burial at Oakland Cemetery, a public trace of a family trying to put words and ceremony around a life cut short.
