Marvin Ray Patrick Killed.jpg

Marvin Ray Patrick, 33, was shot to death in his car that was parked outside of his grandmother's home on Eighth Terrace West in Birmingham's College Hills neighborhood.

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A shooting in Birmingham's College Hills neighborhood Monday morning left a 33-year-old man dead and pushed the city's homicide tally for this year over last year's total, with a month still left in 2016.

Marvin Ray Patrick was sitting in his Lincoln Continental outside of his grandmother's home on Eighth Terrace West between 11:30 a.m. and noon when gunfire erupted. His grandmother called police to the scene, and they arrived to find Patrick dead in his locked car. He had been shot in the head and neck area.

"At this time it's unclear what led up to the shooting,'' said Birmingham police spokesman Lt. Sean Edwards. "This is pretty fresh."

Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service and police had to jimmy open the door to Patrick's car. He was then officially pronounced dead. Multiple family members were on scene, and identified the victim.

They believe he may have been asleep in the driver's side seat when he was killed. The rear driver's side window was shattered by the gunfire. Edwards said it's unclear how many shots were fired, but neighbors reported hearing between three to five gunshots.

Police evidence markers indicated there were at least three shots fired. It wasn't immediately clear whether the shooter or shooters were on foot or in another vehicle.

"We heard the shots, but you hear shots all of the time,'' said Shontena Hudson, who lives nearby and is friends with Patrick's family. She said she saw a car speeding down the street, but wasn't sure whether it was connected to the shooting.

She and her daughter ran to see what was going on, and that's when her daughter saw Patrick wounded inside his car. "He was always well-mannered,"

Hudson said Patrick's death was a hard hit to the neighborhood. "It's a quiet neighborhood and when this happens to someone you know, it's personal,'' she said. "Everybody around here is family."

She said the continued violence is disheartening. "I have a 14-year-old son,'' she said, "and it worries me what could happen to him."

Patrick is Birmingham's 93rd homicide this year. Of those, at least six have been ruled justifiable and two others were officer-involved shootings from outside law enforcement agencies: The Shelby County Sheriff's Office and the Irondale Police Department.

Birmingham ended 2015 with 92 homicides, a 55 percent increase over 2014, making 2015 the city's deadliest year since 2008. Of the 92 Birmingham deaths ruled homicides by the Jefferson County Coroner's Office last year, two were considered accidental by Birmingham police and 10 others were ruled justifiable.

There were 59 homicides in Birmingham in 2014, just short of tying 2011 for the fewest killing since 1966, a year in which 56 people were victims of homicides. The city's highest homicide tally in recent history was 141 in 1991.

In all of Jefferson County, there have been 134 homicides so far in 2016, including the 93 in Birmingham. In 2015, there were 143 slayings countywide, up from 88 in 2014.

"We are extremely concerned about the homicide rate in our city,'' said Birmingham police Chief A.C. Roper. "Although roughly 10% are justified, which means there was no criminal violation, the numbers are much too high."

A reoccurring theme, for the most part, continues to be people killing people they know, the chief said. "As research has proven, a person's social network or associations has a major impact on homicide victimization rates,'' he said. "We see it all too often on our city streets across America. We still need more families and communities to stand up and say it is not acceptable in our families and neighborhoods."

"In fact, our increase seems to be driven by domestic violence homicides which have doubled this year,'' Roper said. "This speaks to greater issues beyond the traditional police department and we're seeing this challenge across the nation."

"We have experienced some success in lowering our homicide rate in past years,'' he said, "so we know we can do it again with additional community support and personal responsibility."