By admin 
The 51-year-old Domino’s pizza delivery driver who was shot during an apparent robbery in Birmingham is being remembered as a model employee and a kind, compassionate man who was his mother’s caregiver.
“He was an ideal person,” Roebuck Domino’s owner Chris Daugherty said of employee and friend Derek Marcus Burpo.
‘It doesn’t seem possible that something like this would happen to someone like Derek. He was just good.”
“He was a super quiet, gentle soul who never bothered anyone,” he said. “We just got lost.”
“He was very kind, hardworking and business-minded,” said his cousin, Daphne Ballard. “He wanted to do something.”
“I had a soft spot for him,” Ballard said.
Just before 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Birmingham police were dispatched to a shots fired report in the 400 block of Roebuck Drive on the city’s east side.
Officers found Burpo, affectionately known as “Dink” by the family, outside his car in front of a home on a private road. Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service pronounced him dead at the scene at 9.42pm
Burpo’s car contained pizzas that he was supposed to deliver.
Police said Thursday that no arrests have been made.
“This is one of the most heartbreaking murders we have seen in our city,” Officer Truman Fitzgerald said.
“Here you have a man who is working on the very first day of 2025 to support his family and someone who committed the worst robbery you can commit. They robbed a family of their loved one.”
Birmingham police are investigating the fatal shooting of a 51-year-old man who delivered pizza to a home in Roebuck.(Carol Robinson)
Burpo graduated from Huffman High School in 1991 and then from Alabama State University. He also had his MBA, and family said he was working toward a Ph.D.
His brother, 36-year-old Darryl Burpo, was killed in a murder in Birmingham in 2004.
“Their mother has now lost both of her sons,” Ballard said.
After college, Burpo worked for car dealers and then started selling insurance.
When the COVID pandemic slowed sales, she said, he took a job at Domino’s. That was about two years ago.
“He worked six days a week, from 4 p.m. to closing, whether that was midnight or 2 a.m.,” Ballard said. “He was old-fashioned. He wasn’t afraid, but he didn’t argue with anyone.”
Daugherty said Burpo was a hard worker who was loved by him and the Roebuck Domino team.
“He was just a model employee,” he said. “He was great to be around.”
Daugherty was called to the scene Wednesday evening.
“It doesn’t seem real,” Daugherty said. “My heart is broken.”
“It’s the worst nightmare,” he said. “It’s just unbelievable.”
It’s also pointless.
As a policy, Domino’s drivers carry less than $20 in cash, usually less than $15.
“We already have pretty tight security,” Daugherty said. “I don’t know what else to do, except maybe go 100 percent cashless. I just don’t know.”
Roebuck Domino’s was closed on Thursday.
“I couldn’t pretend today was just another day,” Daugherty said.
Derek Marcus Burpo, 51, was shot and killed in Birmingham on January 1, 2025, while delivering Domino’s pizza.(Special for AL.com)
Ballard said Burpo lovingly cared for his mother, who turns 82 on Friday.
“It was just the two of them,” she said. “He recently surprised her with roses and perfume and told her, ‘I just want you to get better.’”
“I said, ‘Dink, I’m going to tell the world you did that because that was so sweet,’” Ballard said. “It touched me so much.”
“His mother said to me, ‘I couldn’t make it without him,’” Ballard said.
Burpo lived less than a minute away from where he was killed.
“His mother probably heard the shots,” Ballard said.
When Burpo left for work on Wednesday, he made sure his mother knew he was leaving.
“He touched her, shook her and said, ‘I’m out,’” Ballard said.
Burpo’s mother was a seamstress for Parisian and Gus Mayer department stores for many years before becoming a janitor herself. She retired completely last year amid health concerns.
“She was getting ready, putting Dink’s name on everything and thinking she was going to leave him first,” Ballard said. ‘That was her baby. It shocked the whole family that it was him.”
Burpo, Ballard said, was gentle and kind. He liked soft drinks and red apples.
“He didn’t deserve this,” she said.
The family is now praying for justice.
As for the shooters, Ballard said, “You have to realize that you’re taking human lives, and you can’t get them back.”
“If we can never put a face to what happened, I hope you know you hurt people,” she said. “People with a consciousness don’t do these kinds of things. You must be a miserable person to do this.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.