20-year-old charged with aggravated murder in triple homicide at Bessemer gas station; victims identified

A suspect has been arrested in the Bessemer gas station shooting that left three men dead.

Bessemer police said Monday that Raukeem Cunningham, 20, has been charged with aggravated murder in connection with the triple slaying.

The shooting occurred shortly after 11:30 p.m. Friday at the Citgo location at 200 Fourth Avenue.

All three victims died at the scene.

Police identified the victims as Christopher Eddins, 25, Ronald Dixon Jr., 20, and Wesley Fowler, 40.

Det. Justin Burmeister said at least two of the victims were in the store together, and he wasn’t sure about the third. They weren’t there long when someone inside a vehicle opened fire on them.

The shooting started in the parking lot and moved inside the store, Burmeister said.

“We believe there was more than one shooter,” he said.

The shooters appear to have gotten out of the car and followed the victims into the store, still shooting.

Multiple shots were fired. Most of the shooting was captured on store surveillance footage.

Burmeister said the shooting was not random – at least one of the victims was targeted. A motive has not yet been confirmed.

Investigators are still looking for additional suspects, he added.

The shooting was one of two this weekend in Bessemer in which multiple people were killed.

Just after 10 p.m. Sunday, three men were shot while sitting in a pickup truck in the parking lot of a small strip mall along busy Ninth Avenue North. All three men were taken to UAB Hospital, two of them with life-threatening injuries.

This investigation is also ongoing.

Cunningham will be held without bail.

Friday’s shooting is the first triple homicide in Bessemer in a long time, and the seventh, eighth and ninth this year.

Throughout Jefferson County, there were 139 homicides reported in 2024, including nine in Bessemer.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Bessemer police at 205-481-4366, the tip line at 205-428-3541 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.