Posted On September 19th, 2022,

The Magic City is riddled with bullet holes, crushed dreams and broken hearts. 2022 has been especially bloody. Birmingham is on pace for a record-breaking year of homicides. How do we stop the bleeding?

AL.com and The Birmingham Times are collaborating on a series of reports with a focus on contributing factors that may have fueled the high rate of homicides in 2022 and magnifying the voices of those who are affected by violence or working in areas to reduce some of the crime.

Theta Johnson stood outside the yellow crime scene tape Saturday afternoon with grief written all over her face as she stared at the blood-stained white sheet that covered her son’s body.

Johnson’s son, 32-year-old Rodriquez “Dreke” Powell, and her nephew, 35-year-old Justin Taylor, had just been shot in a hail of gunfire while they sat inside a Mustang on Birmingham’s Inglenook Street.

Taylor was rushed to the hospital where he died shortly after arrival.

Powell barely made it out of the car before he was killed on the roadway.

For Johnson, the scene was all-too familiar.

Powell is her third son to die by violence in Birmingham.

Taylor, who was like a son to her, was her second nephew killed in the streets.

Her faith, she said, it what gets her through the losses.

“I can’t say, ‘Again, Lord?’ No, because I trust God‚'’ Johnson said Sunday. “He loaned them to us. They’re not ours. They’re God’s.’’’

Original Article : Birmingham Gun Violence: How Do We Stop The Bleeding?