Asia Poole, a 21-year-old mother, was tragically killed last week following a fight at the Monarch Ridge Apartment complex, an incident that was streamed on social media.
Following the arrest of four individuals by the Birmingham Police Department, including one on Tuesday, Councilor Clinton Woods has expressed a strong desire to see more action taken at the complex to prevent such incidents from happening again.
In 2021, the city attorneys sued the Monarch Ridge apartment complex, and as part of the settlement, the complex was supposed to share its camera feed with the Birmingham Police Department’s real-time crime center and provide information from its license plate readers. However, the police department has stated that this cooperation never occurred.
Although Chief Scott Thurmond confirmed that the complex has cameras, he mentioned that the police still have no access to them. The original settlement agreement from 2021 was meant to last for a year, but it is currently uncertain whether any parts of the settlement were fulfilled by the apartment complex. Woods highlighted the significance of Asia Poole’s murder and stressed the need for changes to address ongoing issues at the complex.
“You’re talking about a murder. They killed someone and they could’ve killed multiple people and there was no reason for it. So looking at the totality of the situation and what could’ve been done to prevent this. We’re having conversations with the property owner there as well as the community and we need to understand what’s been going on. It has been quiet when you lose a life that should not have been lost things have to change,” adds Clinton.
He says that the Birmingham Police Department, the city’s attorneys’ office, and the property owners are now collaborating to find solutions to ensure the safety of the apartment complex.
