A man suffered life-threatening injuries after being shot Saturday night in Birmingham's Ensley neighborhood, according to police. The shooting happened at 9:14 p.m. in the 2400 block of Avenue B Ensley, and as of the initial report, no one had been taken into custody.
Details remain scarce. According to WBRC, police confirmed only that the victim's injuries were life-threatening and that a suspect had not been apprehended at the time the station published its report. The outlet described the case as developing and said it would update the story as more information comes in.
A Pattern of Shootings in the Ensley Area
This is not the first violent incident to hit the Ensley area this year. In August, a suspect was arrested after a man was shot while driving and crashed his vehicle into a home, with police saying the driver was found unresponsive with an apparent gunshot wound and pronounced dead at the scene, per abc3340.com's earlier report. In a separate case, a man was left in serious condition after a shooting around 7:34 p.m. in the 700 block of 4th Street Southwest, with the victim transported to a local hospital before a suspect was taken into custody, the outlet's report notes.
Those earlier cases ended with arrests, but as of Saturday night's shooting, that outcome has not been reported for the Avenue B incident. No motive, suspect description, or additional circumstances surrounding the shooting have been released.
Shootings Down Sharply Citywide This Year
The Ensley shooting arrives amid a broader downward trend in Birmingham violence. Three-quarters of the way through 2026, the city had investigated 34 homicides, down from 61 at the same point in 2025 and 129 during the same stretch of 2024, according to al.com. That pace has Birmingham on track to post its lowest annual murder tally since 1951.
The same data shows citywide violent crime down 8.6% this year, with rapes falling 27.6%, robberies dropping 35.4% and aggravated assaults down slightly at 0.8%. The number of people shot in Birmingham has also declined, with 137 reported so far in 2026 compared with 217 over the same period last year, the outlet reported. One category moved in the opposite direction: domestic-violence assaults rose 18.3% this year, according to the same report.
No information has been released about the identity or condition of the man wounded Saturday night, and it remains unclear whether anyone has since been arrested in connection with the shooting. The case remains under investigation.
