Alabama shooting prompts manhunt near Birmingham
GARDENDALE, Ala. – Authorities searched for a man described as armed and dangerous Wednesday following a shooting that left three people dead in a domestic dispute at an Alabama mobile home community near Birmingham.
Gardendale police released a photo of a potential suspect and told residents to stay inside during the manhunt.
Police Chief Mike Walker said all the victims were adults with a family relationship to a suspect identified as Kenneth Dion Lever, 52, of the Pensacola, Florida, area.
Lever is just weeks away from standing trial on child sex charges in Pennsylvania.
Court records in York County, Pennsylvania, show 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.
Others outside the family aren’t believed to be in danger, Walker told reporters, but he warned against approaching Lever.
Neighbors described hearing multiple gunshots. Jefferson County Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates said investigators were still at the scene and no identities were available.
Mayor Stan Hogeland said he had talked with relatives of some of the victims and described them as “distraught.”
“We’re doing everything we can to try to find this guy,” Hogeland told reporters.
The search for Lever initially focused in woods near the Peachtree Crossings mobile home community, where the shootings occurred, but Walker later said police believed he had left the area.
Lever could be headed back toward the Florida Panhandle in either a Chevrolet Camaro or a white Honda Accord, Walker 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.
Walker declined comment on any court cases involving Lever.