A Jefferson County jury has convicted the man accused of shooting a 4-year-old girl as she rode in a car with her aunt through Birmingham's Avondale neighborhood in 2022, a case that left the child fighting for her life and undergoing surgeries for years afterward. Ronald Porter Jr. was found guilty of two counts of attempted murder and discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle, and he was booked back into the Jefferson County Jail after previously being free on bond.
According to AL.com, the shooting occurred in the Tom Brown Village public housing community, and the car got away, circled the block, and stopped in the parking lot of Avondale Grocery & Deli, where police and medics responded. WBRC reported that shots were fired in the 4100 block of Messer-Airport Highway. The same report describes Porter as a 26-year-old man from Fultondale, though when police in Birmingham first identified him as a suspect in 2022, WBRC reported he was 21 years old. The dossier does not explain the discrepancy in his reported age between the two accounts.
The shooting happened about 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 7, 2022, near the Tom Brown Village public housing community, with ShotSpotter technology detecting multiple rounds fired, police said at the time. Serenity was riding in the vehicle with her aunt when the shots struck the car. Police and fire medics responded to Avondale Grocery & Deli to help the victims.
Mayor Called the Violence Cowardly
Then-Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said at the time that the 4-year-old girl was fighting for her life at Children's Hospital, and he identified her as Serenity Spearman while confirming she had been shot in the back, according to AL.com. Woodfin described people who disregard human life as cowardly, and he said anyone aiding and abetting the shooters was just as culpable.
Spearman was one of more than 10 victims in a string of violence across the city over a six-day span that September, per the WBRC report. Porter was charged soon after the shooting and was also awaiting trial for a separate robbery and shooting that happened about a month before Serenity was hurt, the dossier notes.
Years of Surgeries for a Young Survivor
Serenity underwent several surgeries in the days immediately following the shooting, and doctors initially believed the bullet lodged in her back would shift position as she grew. Instead, the bullet remained lodged in her back for years. This year, she underwent another surgery specifically to remove it, the outlet reported.
The victims' family has said Serenity and her aunt did not know Porter, according to the dossier. Porter is now scheduled for sentencing in January 2027.
Part of a Broader Push on Gun Violence
The shooting that hurt Serenity came amid broader concern about gun violence in Birmingham. Mayor Woodfin later released the City of Birmingham's Crime Commission report, a 66-page blueprint aimed at reducing homicides and gun violence citywide. The case against Porter stands as one piece of that broader reckoning, with a young survivor still carrying the physical toll of a single night on Messer-Airport Highway years later.
