DeMario L. Kirkland was 31 and a resident of Bessemer, Alabama, when he died from a gunshot wound on the evening of Saturday, April 3, 2021. The shooting was reported as the city’s fifth homicide of 2021 and prompted an investigation by the Bessemer Police Department.

Detectives identified a suspect and less than two weeks after the shooting they arrested Carlos Heard. Heard was charged with Kirkland’s murder and booked into the Jefferson County Jail on a $250,000 bond. The motive for the shooting has not been released as the case moves through the courts.

If anyone has information about DeMario Kirkland, the events of April 3, 2021, or the people involved, please share what is known with the Bessemer Police Department.