PRICHARD, Ala. (WKRG) — A homicide investigation is underway after a 22-year-old was shot to death in Prichard’s Alabama Village Thursday morning.

A Facebook live video captured the moments after Prichard Police responded to the scene around 6 a.m. Prichard Police vehicles and caution tape are seen lining the street.

One neighbor told News 5 they heard multiple gunshots before Police arrived. 

Prichard Police told us, when they got there, they found the body of 22-year-old Ji’Taveis Demar Thomas, father of two, from Mobile. 

Right now, detectives do not know what led up to the shooting. People WKRG spoke with said they want to take back control of their community, and Detective Robert Martin with Prichard Police couldn’t agree more. 

“I know people are tired of this happening. I’m tired of it. It just frustrates me every time I see a young man laid out on the side of the road waiting for Newman’s to come and pick their body up and take him down to the Department of Forensic Science,” Martin said. “I just sit back and look and I just say, well, this person had no clue that this was truly their last day here on Earth.”

Martin said cooperation with police is the first step in taking back the neighborhood.

“People have to be willing to come forward and talk with the police authorities without attitudes and all of us have to work together,” Martin said. “I understand that sometimes tempers may flare because when you lose a loved one it’s nothing that you want to really talk about at that time but we’re asking the questions to try and gain an understanding of who this person was because we don’t know them and we can’t talk to them now because they’re gone.”

There are cameras that are spread throughout Alabama Village and around the city of Prichard. Martin said they will be looking into them to try to figure out what happened. 

“They do work,” Martin said. “So we are looking into checking all those footages on those cameras in that area to see what we can see. So like I tell people, the investigation is ongoing, but it takes time.”

As Prichard Police continue to investigate, they are urging anyone with information to come forward and contact their department.