Speaking before the Birmingham City Council Tuesday, the mayor commended local investigators for securing three more murder charges for a man already charged in 11 shooting deaths.

“I want to thank the Birmingham Police Department for their hard work, and kudos to them for these major breakthroughs on these very public cases that have caused a ripple in our community,” Mayor Randall Woodfin said.

Damien McDaniel, 22, of Fairfield is now charged in connection with the shootings of two firefighters at work, a UPS worker and a 21-year-old woman. That’s in addition to charges stemming from two mass shootings last year outside area clubs along with several other homicides.

City officials announced the new charges at a press conference before the council meeting.

According to police, investigators on Tuesday charged McDaniel in the following deaths:

• Mia Nickson, who was shot and killed Jan. 10, 2024, outside her home on the 800 block of Green Crest Turn.
• Jordan Melton, a Birmingham firefighter who was shot and killed July 12, 2023, at Fire Station #9, in the Norwood community. A second firefighter, Sgt. Jamal Jones, was also shot during this incident but survived.
• Anthony Lamar Love Jr., a United Parcel Service employee, who was shot and killed April 9, 2024, at a UPS facility on Inglenook Lane. Investigators also charged 41-year-old Charles Nance of Pinson, in Love’s death. Both men face charges of capital murder/murder for hire.

The two mass shootings in which McDaniel was implicated rocked a city already on its way to marking its most violent year. The first was a July 2024 drive-by shooting in which four people were killed and 10 were injured as they stood outside a social club at the 3400 block of 27th Street. The second occurred in September 2024 at the Hush hookah lounge in Five Points South. In that incident, police say, gunmen fired more than 100 rounds that left four people dead and 10 injured.

According to police, McDaniel is in the custody of the Alabama Department of Corrections and Nance is in the Jefferson County Jail. Neither has a bond.

During Tuesday’s council meeting, Councilor Hunter Williams asked Woodfin whether authorities plan to pursue federal charges against McDaniel.

“If you kill 11 people and you shoot 29 so you’re almost at shooting 40 people, to me, you are a terrorist, and I hope that wherever court this goes to that they seek the death penalty, because it is completely unacceptable that there are almost 40 families that have dealt with one individual shooting (their loved ones),” Williams said.

While acknowledging that the crimes were still under investigation, Woodfin told Williams he agrees and is open to speaking with federal officials about that possibility.

Recycling, Repaving

The council also Tuesday voted to apply for a $732,000 grant from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management to expand the city’s curbside recycling services as well as offer education and outreach campaigns for the program. If approved, the grant would come at no cost to the city.

The council also approved an agreement to chip in with Jefferson County on a series of repaving projects in city limits. The county will add the streets to its open paving contract and will be the purchasing agent and manage the work. Birmingham will pay the county $303,720 before the work starts and will take over maintenance of the roadways once they are completed.

The roads included in the agreement are portions of 4th Street, 55th Street Southwest, Birchwood Street, Coalburg Road, Linwood Street, Montevallo Road, Raceway Parkway, Red Mill Road, Sycamore Avenue, Tin Mill Road and Woodslee Street.

City staff told council members that work on the Birmingham streets should start this year.