A young Hueytown man is behind bars in connection with last week's shooting death of another man outside a west Birmingham convenience store.

Joshua Louis Cowans, 23, was booked into the Jefferson County Jail at 8:49 a.m., according to jail records. He is charged with capital murder in the Jan. 11 slaying of 26-year-old Rashiem Porter.

Cowans, who is currently awaiting trial on rape, domestic violence and drug possession charges, is being held without bond in the Jefferson County Jail. He also has previous arrests for gun and drug crimes.

The shooting happened at 8:44 p.m. Wednesday in the parking lot of Best Convenience Store on Pearson Avenue and 17th Place Southwest. He was pronounced dead on the scene at 9 p.m.

Birmingham police spokesman Lt. Sean Edwards last week said investigators watched store surveillance video to determine what happened and provided this account:

Several men were hanging out in front of the store when Porter and his mother drove up. Porter got out of his car and headed into the store. As he left the store, he began to talk with the group of men who were out front.

Then, minutes later, a fight erupted between Porter and one man. After the fight, Porter's mother began to walk home. That's when the suspect and another man ran around the building and began to hit Porter's mother in the face with a gun, injuring her nose.

Porter tried to run to his mother to help her, and he was shot multiple times.

Witnesses were taken to police headquarters for questioning. The suspects fled the scene in a black Nissan.

Edwards said it appeared those involved knew each other. "For men to just show up, for this victim to just show up and for them to have a confrontation so quickly, it just lets me know that they have some pretty bad history," Edwards said. "Detectives are confident that the shooter will be brought to justice."

Porter's mother, 44-year-old Melissa Horton, spoke out about the ordeal the day after the killing. She said she and her son were celebrating because he was supposed to start a new job today. She said Porter was the oldest of her six children, and she said the two were extremely close. They had spent much of the day together on Wednesday, and Porter was excited about the new job at the Dollar General warehouse. "He just wanted to celebrate,'' she said.

Horton said she moved her family - one daughter and five sons - from Chicago to Birmingham in hopes of sparing them from violence. "I brought my kids here to have a better life and they took my son,'' she said through her tears.

Porter attended West End High School, and then Job Corps. "He always had jobs. He just stayed at the house,'' she said. "He was a good person."