15-year-old killed on Senior Skip Day 2002 haunts Birmingham police chief: ‘Sometimes .. things go wrong’

Interim Birmingham Police Chief Michael Pickett was a senior at Ramsay High School when 15-year-old April Jamerson was fatally shot during Senior Skip Day in a Southside park in 2022.

It’s a day he has never forgotten.

“I still vividly remember seeing it on the news,’’ Pickett said. “For most seniors, it was supposed to a happy day, a day of fun but it turned into complete sadness and concern.”

“It was a large, gray cloud over that day,’’ he said. “Nobody expected it to take that kind of a turn.”

Senior Skip Day is a tradition in the city and is set to take place Friday as Spring Break begins.

With that in mind, Pickett is asking Birmingham seniors, and all students, to prioritize safety.

“Your safety is our priority above all things’’ Pickett said. “Be aware of your surroundings, avoid risky and illegal behavior, and remember how far you have come.”

“Sometimes seniors think, ‘Oh nothing will happen,’’’ he said. “You just never know. Try to be in a space amongst good people and if you see something going on or a situation getting out of hand, go ahead and leave and call 911.”

Jamerson, an Ensley High School sophomore and majorette was killed March 22, 2002, in a shooting at Bessie Estell Park. The gunfire erupted about 1:30 p.m. that Friday.

Her sister, Nikki Milhouse, was holding April’s hand when the shots rang out.

“She fell and she let go of my hand,” Milhouse said, sobbing during an interview at her home the following day. “She said my name and said, ‘I’m going to be all right.”’

“I touched her face and told her it was going to be fine,” she said. “I lied to her.”

A second teenager was shot in the leg and was treated and released from Children’s Hospital.

Milhouse said she, April and other friends had just gotten out of a car when a young man called to April.

“She told him, ‘No, I’m not going anywhere with you,”’ Millhouse said.

The man got angry and threw a beer bottle at April. When Milhouse cursed at him for bothering her little sister, the man grabbed a gun from his car and opened fire.

“His cousin told him to put the gun up,” Milhouse said. “He was grabbing for it while he was still shooting.”

“She was trying to run,” said the cousin, Starr Hullett, who was also with April that day. “He shot her in the back because she wouldn’t talk to him. I couldn’t help her.”

The shooter, Deandre Stewart, pleaded guilty mid-trial. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for murder and 20 years in prison for the attempted murder of the 14-year-old boy who was also wounded that day.

Pickett said he was familiar with the park because of its proximity to Ramsay.

“I drove by there a thousand times and hung out there maybe a handful of times,’’ the interim chief said. “I wasn’t there on that day, but I do remember driving by and it was just a sad day.”

“Whenever I hear Senior Skip Day, I always think about that because that was my senior year and it’s always the first thing that comes up,’’ Pickett said.

He said Senior Skip Day always reminds him of April, just as Easter now reminds him of Areyelle Yarbrough, who was killed on Easter Sunday 2021 in a shooting that injured five others – ages 5 to 21 – in Birmingham’s W.C. Patton Park.

“While these days and these moments should be joyous and happy and filled with good memories,’’ Pickett said, “sometimes unfortunately things go wrong.”

Police are coordinating with the schools and school resource officers to find out the known gathering spots so that officers can try to be aware of what is going on and where.

“We can’t control everyone, and after the age of 16, they can choose whether or not they want to go to school,’’ he said. “But we just want to try to make sure the public is aware, and the parents are aware.”

“We try to have some type of presence and monitor social media so that we can do everything we can to prevent another tragedy like that,’’ Pickett said. “We want it to be a safe environment for everyone.”