When people are murdered in Jefferson County, chances are the killer was a male under 25 using a gun.

More than half of the accused killers in the county were 24 or younger, according to a Birmingham News analysis of homicides from 2006 through 2009.

Nine times out of 10, the victims were shot to death.

The percentage of homicides with defendants under age 25 who used guns in Jefferson County substantially exceeds the national average, statistics show.

In Birmingham, where nearly three-quarters of the county's murders occurred, the disparity was even worse from 2006-2009.

Ages 16 through 24 are the killing years here.

That age group comprised 56 percent of the accused killers in Birmingham and 54 percent across the county those four years.

Nationally, 42 percent of the homicide defendants were 17 through 24, according to FBI statistics, which do not break out separate numbers for 16-year-olds. The

made up 52 percent of the homicide defendants in Birmingham and 50 percent across Jefferson County.

"We're seeing more violence from that age group, more kids with cold hearts," said A.C. Roper, Birmingham's police chief. "Quite often we've heard kids say, 'Well, the victim went to a better place,' and chalk it up as if they were doing God's will or something."

Ages 16 through 24 also are the dying years. About 16 percent of Birmingham's population is in that age group, but 33 percent of its homicide victims die that young.

"The one issue that has caused me the greatest concern is seeing young men gunned down in the streets by other young men," said Roper, whose 19-year-old brother was murdered while holding his infant son during a 1992 robbery attempt.

"My wife's brother also was murdered in Birmingham," he said. "I don't know many cities where the chief and the chief's wife have both lost siblings to murder in that city."

The toll was especially harsh on black families. A substantial number of young black men in the city and county wound up in prison or a coffin.

Statistics show:

>> Black males were 80 percent of the homicide defendants in majority-white Jefferson County and 89 percent in majority-black Birmingham. The national average was 57 percent.

>> More than 70 percent of the victims in Birmingham were black males, versus 43 percent nationwide in 2007, the only year a comparison was possible.

>> Guns were used in 86 percent of Birmingham homicides, and 83 percent in the county as a whole, versus 68 percent nationwide. Birmingham's rate is higher among defendants ages 16 through 24.

Some families suffered both ways in Birmingham and Jefferson County. Otis Towns, 18, was gunned down in 2006. In March his brother, Cortez Towns, went to prison for a murder committed when he was 17.

Murder rates are dropping nationally and locally, including a 39 percent decrease in Birmingham 2006 through 2009.

Homicides by white offenders also dropped substantially in Alabama and the nation from 2000 through 2007, according to a study by Northeastern University professors James Allen Fox and Marc L. Swatt.

But the rate of homicides involving both black male offenders and victims under age 25 rose in the nation and state in that period, the study showed.

Homicide is the cause for nearly half of black males in the U.S. who die at ages 15 through 24, according to the

.

"Kids have always fought," said Joe Ackerson, a pediatric neuropsychologist at the

. "But now they fight with bullets instead of fists. And when you use bullets, the results can't be reversed."

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