Birmingham police hold a press conference regarding the recent violence in the city

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – Birmingham police held a news conference regarding the recent violence in the city. You can watch the live stream below or click the link here.

Attendees at the press conference include the Birmingham Police Department, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, Birmingham Councilwoman Latonya Tate, Jefferson County Sheriff Mark Pettway, members of the US Attorney’s Office, members of the Secret Service, the FBI, the ATF and community partners.

“In the last 24 hours, we have lost seven community members and another 10 have been injured in gun violence. This is terribly unacceptable,” said BPD Chief Scott Thurmond. “We will no longer tolerate this behavior in this city. There are too many families that have been devastated and destroyed by gun violence in our city. Everyone in this room, to be honest, is fed up with it and it needs to stop today.”

Chief Thurmond says the city and BPD have a strategy moving forward.

“Our strategy is that we have deployed all of our detectives from the Birmingham Police Department to focus on these two particular cases to bring justice. To those who are responsible for these heinous crimes, I want you to know that we will come full force for you with every piece of law enforcement we have. We will come after you.”

When speaking directly to the community, Chief Thurmond says BPD hears them and is with them.

“We are doing everything we can to bring justice to these families and restore safety and peace to our communities. We will not stop until we achieve this.”

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin echoed Chief Thurmond’s words during Sunday’s news conference.

“The Birmingham Police Department, along with our federal partners, are a priority. That simply means hunting down the people who committed these heinous acts in two separate incidents. It has been said, it bears repeating, that these victims, as well as their family members left to pick up the pieces, deserve swift justice. Shooters deserve no safe harbor or refuge from other community members. They don’t deserve this from their own family, friends or strangers. No one should provide safe haven/safe harbor to the people who have committed these acts.”

Mayor Woodfin also talked about the relationship between the community and BPD and how important it is.

“Let me define how fast justice works. We can move with great speed to solve these cases and bring justice to these families. We can move faster with community buy-in and community support. So again, I’m making a public plea, we know someone knows something or saw something. So come forward, provide credible information so we can get these shooters off our streets and continue to protect our community.”

Chief Thurmond also stated that the two shootings on Saturday were targeted and not random.

“Both of these shootings were targeted, they were not random. Let me be very clear. These were not random shootings. This should make it easier for information to become available to the Birmingham Police Department to bring resolution to our community and these families. We know 100% that there are people who know who is responsible and know what happened. We need this information so we can bring justice to these families and restore safety to our community and our city.”

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