A 15-year-old boy killed Friday afternoon when a shootout erupted in Birmingham's Smithfield community.

The shooting happened at 3:19 p.m. at Center Street and 9th Avenue West. Birmingham police and medics were dispatched to the location on a report of gunfire, and then of a person wounded.

When they arrived, they found the teen victim in the the passenger's seat of a silver Kia Optima, said Birmingham police spokesman Lt. Sean Edwards. He was shot in the hip area.

One resident said she was inside her apartment when she heard at least six or seven shots. She rushed outside, and was passed by two armed males running from the area. A nurse, she checked the victim's pulse but said there was none.

Edwards said two other teens were in the Kia with the victim. They were driving north on Center Street when two to three black males opened fire on their vehicle. Those inside of the vehicle returned fire as they attempted to flee the scene.

"They were all into it,'' Edwards said. "It's apparent they were shooting as well, so we had everybody shooting back and forth at each other."

Investigators found at least eight shell casings a half block away, and Edwards said they believe the shooting happened there and then the car stopped where it was later found by police. "There might have been a pursuit after the shooting,'' Edwards said. "The two individuals in the vehicle might have exited the vehicle and started a pursuit but they all vanished once the police got here."

Witnesses told police the teens in the vehicle with victim returned to help him, but fled once police and fire sirens started approaching.The car they were in turned out to have been stolen out of Trussville.

More than 50 people were around the car when police and firefighters arrived.

"Not everybody's being cooperative,'' Edwards said, "but maybe later on as it gets dark we'll get a little more information to point us in the right direction."

This is Birmingham's 43rd homicide this year, and the 62nd in all of Jefferson County. "This is just a pretty sad situation,'' Edwards said. "You've got a bunch of teenagers riding in a car and it's apparent they were armed. It's just an unfortunate thing that somebody's life was lost here, but again there are so many other things that teenagers could be involved in.

"It's obvious that the lifestyle and the activities of some of these young people involved contributed to this taking place today,'' he said. "We've got our work cut out for us."

Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham homicide investigators at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.