A Birmingham high school student is dead after being shot while walking home from school Tuesday afternoon.

The shooting happened just before 4 pm in the 3200 block of Cedar Avenue Southwest, just out of eyesight of Wenohah High School where the boy was a student.

As of 11:30 p.m., Birmingham police had taken at least two possible suspects into custody for questioning in Ensley. Officers, along with tracking dogs, set up a perimeter in the area of 44th Street, and asked residents to stay inside.

Authorities said the suspects were in a vehicle, but bailed from that vehicle when police began to follow them. The car rolled back into the police cruiser, causing minor damage but no injuries.

Sgt. Brian Shelton said they were being questioned about possible involvement in the shooting.

The ordeal began, police said, when the teen and his friend were near an intersection when a car approached them and someone inside opened fire. The victim was shot in the stomach, said Lt. Sean Edwards.

After the shooting, the two teens ran back to the nearby Coleman Auto Parts and Sales. The victim collapsed on the floor just behind the counter, telling shop employees, "Somebody shot me. Call the police."

Employees said the victim wasn't bleeding externally, but began to drift into unconsciousness. "He was very alert,'' said an employee who asked not to be named. "But the longer he sat there, he just started to go."

The victim's friend wasn't injured, but was visibly shaken at the scene. He was taken to police headquarters for questioning.

Edwards said there were other witnesses in the area. "We want to protect their ages and faces because of their age, but our detectives are talking to them to try to get to the bottom of it."

Detectives were also canvassing the area, and trying to determine whether the shooting was caught on surveillance video. The business in the area had multiple cameras, and signs warning of ongoing video surveillance.

Edwards said police are not releasing a specific description of the vehicle. "We hope they're still riding around in it, so we can give them a surprise,'' he said.

Edwards said detectives learned the victim had several altercations with some boys from his school and in the neighborhood recently. "Our goal in this case is to identify and arrest the person responsible,'' Edwards said. "Senseless."

The Birmingham teen is the city's fifth homicide victim of 2017. Within an hour of the teen's killing, another man was shot and killed across town in the city's Gate City community becoming the city's sixth homicide. Birmingham ended 2016 with 104 slayings.

In all of Jefferson County, there have been eight homicides this year, six of them in Birmingham. Of those, so far, one has been ruled justifiable.

The other Jefferson County homicides happened in Bessemer and Fairfield. In Fairfield, that victim also was a student. On Jan. 18, Fairfield Preparatory High School sophomore Tyron Bennett was shot to death in his neighborhood when he and a friend were walking to school.

Police have not yet made any arrests in Bennett's death.

Edwards said the Wenonah student had only been out of school 20 or 25 minutes. "One homicide is too many but we're talking about a young person,'' Edwards said. "There so many other things that young people want to do."

"My heart goes out to their family right now,'' he said. "We're doing everything we possibly can."

Birmingham City Schools Interim Superintendent Larry Contri issued this statement Tuesday night: "We were deeply saddened after being notified today that a Wenonah High School student was shot after school while walking along Cedar Avenue. He later succumbed to his injuries at University Hospital.

The Birmingham Board of Education, its employees and Wenonah High School extend heartfelt sympathy to the student's family, friends and classmates. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

Grief counselors will be available at Wenonah High School on Wednesday, Feb. 1, to work with students and staff."

Anyone with information on either of the Birmingham homicides on Tuesday is asked to call homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.