On July 6, 2026, Jose Felix Alvarez-Duenas, 31, was found shot to death inside a home on Alabama Junction Road in Brookwood, Alabama. A second victim, 22-year-old University of Alabama student Jazmine Alexis Bates, was also shot and killed. Responding officers discovered Alvarez-Duenas near the front of the house and Bates in a bedroom closet; the homeowner’s dog had been shot and killed as well.

The homeowner had been out of the country and asked Alvarez-Duenas to house-sit and care for the dog. Concerned after doorbell camera footage showed a suspicious person on the back porch, the homeowner asked the landlord to request a wellness check. Investigators from the Brookwood Police Department and the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit used the footage and other scene evidence to identify 24-year-old DeKendrick Crawford. Footage reportedly showed Crawford discarding some of Alvarez-Duenas’s belongings, including his phone and driver’s license, into nearby woods.

Alvarez-Duenas is described as a devoted single father of three children, ages 10, 9, and 4, and as a caring son, brother and friend. Investigators say Crawford had known the victims and the homeowner through prior employment and that Crawford and Alvarez-Duenas had experienced a falling out; no specific motive has been confirmed. Did anyone in the Brookwood area see activity on or near Alabama Junction Road the night of July 5–6, 2026, or have information about contacts between the involved parties?