Formal charges have been filed in the weekend shooting death of a 5-year-old boy caught in family crossfire.

Birmingham police on Tuesday announced the arrest of Rickkia Allen, 29. She is charged with capital murder in the Saturday shooting death of Ta’Narius “TJ” Moore Jr., who died from a gunshot wound to the head.

TJ was in kindergarten at Center Point Elementary School and would have turned 6 in January. He played youth league football in Huffman and just hours before his death had been named an All-Star. His teammates and coaches are holding a candlelight vigil Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. They will be releasing red and gold balloons. Red was TJ’s favorite color.

"Our hearts and prayers go out to the community of Center Point during this tragic time involving the loss of one of their students at Center Point Elementary School,'' according to a statement from Jefferson County Schools. “Our district will be providing additional counseling and support to the staff and students as they endure this difficult time.”

Birmingham police did not release Allen’s relationship to TJ. Chief Patrick Smith said earlier Tuesday that TJ’s mother was involved in the altercation.

“All indications indicate that is the case. The child’s mother was involved in this incident herself,'' Smith said. “We’re going to work with DA’s office to make sure the appropriate charges are filed where necessary, and if it leads back to the mother, that’s where it will go.”

Charges have only been announced against Allen. The deadly shooting happened on the same day Allen’s own son turned 4.

Rickkia Allen (Jefferson County Jail)

Birmingham police spokesman Sgt. Johnny Williams said the charge is capital because TJ was in a car at the time he was shot. He said they are not expecting anyone else to be charged at this time.

Allen was booked into the Jefferson County Jail late Tuesday night. She is being held without bond.

Court records show she pleaded guilty earlier this year to a misdemeanor charge of carrying a pistol without a license. She received a 12-month suspended sentence in that case.

In 2018, Allen was charged with attempted murder for intentionally striking a man with her vehicle. That charge was forwarded to a grand jury for an indictment consideration. It wasn’t immediately clear if the case has already been presented to a grand jury. A couple of previous domestic vilence charges against were dismissed.

TJ’s Celebration of Life service will be held Saturday, Dec. 14, at 1 p.m. at Christian Valley Baptist Church on 33rd Terrace North. Visitation will be held Friday from 1 p.m. until 8 p.m. at Bushelon Funeral Home on 14th Street S.W.

North Precinct officers responded just after 2:30 p.m. Saturday to a call of a person shot at 33rd Terrace North and F.L. Shuttlesworth Drive. Upon arrival, officers found TJ unresponsive and suffering from a gunshot wound to the head. A neighbor said she heard multiple shots fired, and then saw a man cradling the wounded boy in his arms.

TJ was taken to Children’s of Alabama where he was pronounced dead. Police said initially said two women – both family members of the boy – were engaged in an altercation. Both fired weapons at each other and the boy was struck. The apartment complex is directly across the street from Hudson elementary school.

“What I do know is that it’s always a terrible thing when you lose a child out in the street. That seems to be compounded during the holiday season,’’ said Birmingham Police Deputy Chief Scott Praytor at Saturday’s scene. “Nobody wants to see that, but when it’s a child who was with the person that they trust the most, and something like this happens, it’s heartbreaking.”

"We’re at one of those rallying points with the community where we have to rally together and do something to curtail this violence,'' Praytor said. "The police department and communities have been working together and we’re getting crime down in the city. We’re seeing decreases across the board in everything, but one homicide in the city is too many. "

"We all have to keep working harder and harder together to stop this senseless violence until we can get to where no mother, no family members are having to cry over Christmas about a child that’s been taken,'' he said.

Birmingham City Councilman William Parker said he received a call about the shooting and rushed to the scene. "This is awful,'' said Parker, visibly upset by the tragedy. “We’re just in a state of shock. This is just horrible. I just don’t know any way else to describe it.”

"We will embrace and uplift the community over the next couple of days and weeks and make sure this never happens again,'' he said. “A young man is not here with us and that is horrible. A young child is not going to be here for Christmas.”

Parker organized a unity walk in TJ’s honor that was Monday night. Dozens of community members gathered by Maclin Park in Collegeville, then crossed the Maxine Herring Parker Bridge, where they lit candles and prayed on the other side of the bridge.

Parker also held vigil later in the night in honor of two 18-year-olds who were shot and killed in east Birmingham. He said it was hard to make sense of a weekend of senseless violence.

“We’re all still in a little disbelief – I’m still in shock – but we have to lean on each other,” he said. “This is a difficult time for all of us. We’re going to work through it, we’re going to get through it, but we all have to work and work together. Not just tonight, but this needs to continue for a long time to come.”

Parker said the council will “do everything we can and need to do from the city’s perspective” to improve public safety, from adding programs for youth to giving more resources to police.

“Whatever the police chief and the police need we need to make sure that we give them all the tools necessary to make sure that we protect everybody,” he said.

TJ was 3 when his father was shot to death in what police said was the result of a long-standing feud between the victim and the shooter. “I just lost my son to the streets. I feel so empty and hurt,’’ Sherie Moore, TJ’s grandmother, told AL.com at the time of her son’s death. “It’s something that I’m used to seeing other families go through, but to actually witness this and this be my family, my son, I’m hurt. I really want justice to be served.”

On Saturday evening, Moore said she never could have comprehended losing both of them at all, much less to gun violence and in such a short period. She said she rushed to the hospital Saturday afternoon, but was not able to see TJ. “I just got the phone call and they told me my grandson had been shot,’’ she said. “I’m not doing good at all. I just feel like life is so unfair.”

“I lost my son, and now I lost his junior,’’ she said. “It’s a hard pill to swallow. It’s just hard. It’s unexplainable.”