Damien McDaniel (left) and Hatarius Woods (Birmingham Police Department).
Two men from Alabama, who were apprehended by the Birmingham police, are said to be accountable for around 30% of the city’s homicides during the summer of 2024.
Damien McDaniel, 22, and Hatarius Woods, 27, were arrested in connection to the Aug. 13 alleged murder of Charlie Moore, 61, according to a press release from the Birmingham Police Department. Both men are being held without bond.
In a press conference on Nov. 26, Birmingham Police Officer Truman Fitzgerald provided details about even more homicides that both men were allegedly involved with, stating that “homicides that have been committed from July to September, about 30% of them” were linked to one of the two men.
Both suspects were also named in connection to a mass shooting at a nightclub on July 13 that killed four — Lerandus Anderson, 24; Stevie McGhee, 39; Markeisha Gettings, 42; and Angela Weatherspoon, 56 — and injured at least 10. McDaniel and Woods were charged with capital murder.
McDaniel was originally arrested in October in connection with another quadruple mass shooting that occurred on Sept. 21 and claimed the lives of Carlos McCain, 27; Roderick Lynn Patterson Jr., 26; Anitra Holloman, 21; and Tahj Booker, 27. Seventeen more victims were injured. McDaniel was also charged with the murders of Jamarcus McIntyre, 32, and Diontrante Tinae Brown, 35.
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In outlining the pile of charges against McDaniel and Woods, Fitzgerald numbered the amount of murders in Birmingham allegedly connected to McDaniel as “up to 11.” Police also suspect that McDaniel and Woods are possibly connected to a number of other unsolved murders, including possible murders-for-hire, and have called upon local residents to provide any information they had.
Fitzgerald noted that more than 300 tips came in from the public related to the Sept. 21 shooting, and it ultimately led to law enforcement being able to obtain an arrest warrant for McDaniel. Others suspects are still at large in that shooting.
During his press conference, Fitzgerald emphasized the importance of McDaniel’s and Woods’ arrests.
“We often say on these crime scenes, we have a few select criminals that add to this crime and give Birmingham a bad name,” he said. “Our homicides that have been committed from July to September, about 30% of them involve one of these individual’s names. So, you have over one-fourth of the homicides in Birmingham being committed by just a select few individuals. When we say on these things, it’s important for us to get these violent offenders off the street, this is the perfect example of why.”
