It was a violent weekend in the Birmingham-Hoover metro area, with four dead and six wounded in separate incidents. The crimes came as a study was released Sunday, ranking Birmingham as the nation's 6th most dangerous city, based on an analysis of FBI crime statistics.

The study, "City Crime Rankings: Crime in Metropolitan America," was published by Washington-based CQ Press. The authors analyzed FBI crime statistics released Sept. 24.

The weekend violence began at 9 p.m. Friday when a 21-year-old man was shot to death in the Kingston community.

On Saturday, a postal worker found the body of an unidentified man on the front porch of a home in Birmingham's Inglenook neighborhood around 4 p.m. He'd been shot to death.

Thirty minutes later, children playing behind a house in the East Lake area of the city discovered the partially burned body of a man inside a shed. Police said the victim appears to be in his mid-20's to early 30's.

In Brighton, police said a man was shot and wounded after an argument with a friend around 5 p.m. Saturday. The victim went by his friend's house and pointed an assault rifle at him. The friend then retrieved a second assault-type weapon and fired on the victim's car, which crashed into a building.

Just after 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Birmingham police responded to a BP gas station in Ensley where three men had been shot while riding in a car just blocks away. The vehicle had more than 10 bullet holes on the driver's side door. The victims were taken to hospitals with what police described as non life-threatening wounds.

Early Sunday, there were two separate shootings at 3 a.m. in Birmingham. Police said a victim was transported to UAB Hospital with non life-threatening wounds after being shot.

At the same time, police were working the scene of a separate homicide nearby. Two people were shot, one fatally. The victims' names have not been released.