Dakisha Stutson

Three people were shot - one of them fatally - inside a north Birmingham apartment complex early Tuesday.

A suspect was taken into custody a short time later when a West Precinct officers found him asleep at a traffic light. His ID card confirmed he was the man wanted for questioning.

Birmingham police responded to a home in Acipco Cottages at 1625 25th Court North about 2 a.m. Sgt. Bryan Shelton said gunshots were reported and officers arrived on the scene to find three victims.

A woman was pronounced dead on the scene. Two males were taken to UAB Hospital, one of them with life-threatening injures. Family members said the surviving victims are the deceased woman's boyfriend and her 18-year-old son.

The Jefferson County Coroner's Office identified the fatality victim as Dakisha Michelle Stutson. She was 40. Authorities said the shooting happened at 1:55 a.m. and Stutson was pronounced dead at 2:41 a.m. on the scene.

Investigators are now trying to determine what led up to the deadly shooting."We don't know the relationships right now between all of the individuals. We can assume they're family but we don't have any concrete information at this time,'' Shelton said.

At least a half dozen family members gathered at the scene. The female victim's mother sat on a folding chair just inside the crime scene tape, visibly upset. Other family members wept openly.

Shelton said they are trying to sort out the circumstance of the crime. "With it being so early in the morning, it's hard to say. Most times around this time of morning, most people are asleep or if they're awake, they're just getting off their shift at work,'' he said. "It's hard. It will be a tedious investigation."

"It's going to be hard for the family involved,'' he said. "It's not news you want to receive at all, that a loved one has died under these circumstances."

The suspect was taken into custody shortly after 6:30 a.m. but no formal charges have been announced.

Stutson is Birmingham's 59th homicide victim this year, and the 88th in all of Jefferson County, including the 59 in Birmingham.