South Carolina man dead following chase, police shooting in east Alabama

Published 3:58 pm Monday, February 14, 2022

A South Carolina man who stole a vehicle outside a restaurant early Monday led police on a high-speed chase, shooting at officers along the way, before he was shot to death by officers, authorities said.

Alexander Kade Lanier, 26, of Greenwood, South Carolina, was killed in the confrontation, Oxford Police Chief Bill Partridge told a news conference.

An officer working on reports was parked near a Waffle House restaurant when he saw a man steal a car at gunpoint and flee, Partridge said. A chase went on to Interstate 20 and then back on to a surface street, with multiple shots fired from the fleeing car, before officers shot and killed Lanier at an intersection, he said.

Lanier, who had a lengthy record, was arrested last year following another police chase east of Birmingham in St. Clair County but had been sent to a court-ordered drug treatment that lacked security and “walked away,” Partridge said.

“This individual shouldn’t be walking our streets,” he said. “He should be in jail.”

Neither the carjacking victim nor police was injured, Partridge said.