GARDENDALE, Ala. (AP) - The Latest on the search for a man suspected of fatally shooting three family members near Birmingham, Alabama (all times local):
5:10 p.m.
A man wanted in the fatal shooting of his ex-wife and two other people near Birmingham, Alabama, has killed himself in the Florida Panhandle.
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Deb Henley in Escambia County, Florida, says 52-year-old Kenneth Dion Lever killed himself Wednesday afternoon after deputies spotted him in a parking lot.
She says Lever got out of a car and took his own life, but it wasn’t immediately clear how.
Authorities had been searching for Lever since three people were shot to death Wednesday morning at a mobile home park in the Birmingham suburb of Gardendale.
The dead include ex-wife Dana Reeves Lever, who filed court papers accusing the man of stalking and harassing her.
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4:30 p.m.
Alabama authorities have released the names of three people who they say were shot to death by a family member still on the run.
Gardendale Police Chief Mike Walker has identified the victims in Wednesday’s slayings as 50-year-old Dana Reeves Lever. She’s the ex-wife of the 52-year-old suspect, Kenneth Dion Lever of Santa Rosa County, Florida. The other victims are Dana Reeves Lever’s sister, 65-year-old Bonnie Reeves Foshee; and Reeves Foshee’s husband, 69-year-old Don Austin Foshee.
Authorities have been searching for Kenneth Lever since the three were shot to death at a mobile home park in Gardendale, near Birmingham.
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2:25 p.m.
A Florida man sought in a triple killing near Birmingham, Alabama, is just weeks away from standing trial on child sex charges in Pennsylvania.
Court records in York County, Pennsylvania, show 52-year-old Kenneth Dion Lever of Santa Rosa County, Florida, is scheduled to go on trial there on Sept. 11.
Lever was arrested in 2015 on charges that he sexually molested a young girl for more than five years ending in August 2010, sometimes forcing a young boy to participate in the assaults.
Lever has been free on bond awaiting a court date.
Police in Gardendale, Alabama, have identified the man as a suspect in the fatal shootings of three adult relatives on Wednesday morning.
Authorities say they believe Lever is driving a red Nissan Sentra rental car with a Georgia license plate. They say he could be headed to the Florida Panhandle.
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12:05 p.m.
Police say three adults slain at a mobile home park near Birmingham, Alabama, were killed in an apparent domestic dispute.
Gardendale Police Chief Mike Walker says everyone involved in the deadly shooting Wednesday morning was related. He says others outside the family aren’t believed to be in danger.
Authorities from multiple agencies and a helicopter were involved in the search for a man police identified as 52-year-old Kenneth Dion Lever of the Pensacola, Florida, area.
Walker told reporters that authorities believe the man has left the area and could be headed back toward his home in the Florida Panhandle.
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11:15 a.m.
Authorities say three people are dead following a shooting at a mobile home park near Birmingham, Alabama, and police are looking for a suspect.
Jefferson County Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates says police notified his office about the deaths, which occurred Wednesday morning in the suburb of Gardendale.
Yates says investigators are still at the scene, and no identities are available.
Gardendale police released a photo of a potential suspect in a Facebook post and told residents to stay inside while they looked for a man described as an active shooter.
Authorities from multiple agencies and a helicopter were involved in the search for a man police identified as Kenneth Dion Lever, 52, of Pensacola, Florida.
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10:46 a.m.
Authorities searched for an armed man Wednesday following a shooting at an Alabama mobile home community near Birmingham.
Gardendale police released a photo of a potential suspect in a Facebook post and told residents to stay inside while they looked for a man described as an active shooter.
Birmingham-area news outlets reported three people had been killed, but police didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment.
The search for a man police identified as Kenneth Dion Lever, 52, of Pensacola, Florida, initially focused in woods near the Peachtree Crossings mobile home community, but police later said they believed he had left the area.
Lever might be in a black Lincoln Navigator with a Florida license plate, police said.
A worker who answered the phone at the mobile home community declined comment, citing instructions from law enforcement.
Court records show a judge issued an order in December telling Lever to stay away from ex-wife Dana Lever and their daughter, a juvenile. Dana Lever sought the protective order claiming the man was stalking and harassing them, records show.
Separately, charges against Lever involving sexual abuse of a minor were filed in York County, Pennsylvania, according to the request from Dana Lever.
A hearing in the Alabama case is scheduled for July 26, a court docket showed.
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